In December 2023, the Greek Ministry of Education issued a call for proposals under the “Trust Your Stars” research program. The aim of the call was supposedly “to create the appropriate conditions for the utilization of existing scientific potential, the formation of new perspectives in their scientific and professional careers, and the implementation of research projects with a high impact on the economy and society by producing high-level research.” The call also contained other grandiose promises about hubs of “Excellence and Innovation.”
If you read the related articles in Kathimerini, you will already know how this initiative ended – in disaster. But this disaster had many victims. Not only excellence and science, but hundreds of young scientists who made the mistake of believing that the Greek state was reliable, giving up positions, missing opportunities, and taking risks to participate in this program. After 2.5 years, the Ministry of Education ended the program in an unacceptable manner, in a story unprecedented even for Greek standards.
In a nutshell: A total of 1,241 proposals were submitted and in July 2025 the results were announced. These were followed by reactions, as is the case in any competitive process. This time, the complaints were particularly intense for two reasons: because this was the largest funding program ever announced in Greece, but also because there were serious indications that AI was used in writing the evaluations of the proposals. More than 200 objections were eventually submitted, which, however, were never assessed, because the government chose silence until the issue went away. And what happened to those candidates who were informed that their proposal had been approved? Silence again. No official information, only rumors, leaks, and complete indifference.
