Gain or pain?

The European Research Council (ERC) received 9167 project proposals for its new Starting Independent Investigator Grants. With a significant portion coming from outside Europe, the ERC hailed this tsunami of interest in its new research funding scheme as hope for a "brain-gain" to counter years of European brain drain.

Anyone can apply for the grant as long as they are based in an EU country during the funding period.

But with a budget of €290 split across all research domains, not to mention the arduous task of sifting through nearly 10000 grant proposals, I wonder if the scheme will be a bit over stretched?

It really is a lot of proposals. A lot of effort on the side of the applicants. I would wager that this interest is driven by falling US grant acceptance rates more than anything else.

How will the ERC carve up its relatively petite spoils? Who is going to suffer through the evaluation of those many thousands of eager applicants?

What is missing, for my taste, is a research focus; say medicine or social sciences. And there should be at least some evidence that the ERC will garner together expertise to judge the successful proposals. Otherwise I fear an outcome involving more pain than gain.