NIH 'Shorter Applications' Shock!

The National Institutes of Health (NIH), the US Government's health funder, is shortening page limits for competing applications to help reduce the administrative burden placed upon applicants, reviewers, and staff. The change seeks to focus applicants and reviewers on the essentials of the science that are needed for a fair and comprehensive review of the application. Shorter applications may have additional benefits for reviewers such as mitigating information overload, and/or enabling a larger number of reviewers to read each application and participate in review in a more informed manner. More information is available on the NIH 'Enhancing Peer Review' website.
Perhaps those in charge of the EC's FP7 might wish to take note?