EU signs research agreement with Israel

Israel will become the third non-EU country to participate in the new Horizon 2020 research funding programme.

José Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission, and Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, have concluded an agreement that will allow Israel to fully participate in the European Union’s new Horizon 2020 research programme.

Under the terms of the agreement, signed on 8 June, Israel will have the same access to the programme as EU member states. European economic area countries Norway and Iceland are also participating in the programme, as is Turkey.

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“Israel is a strong player in research and innovation and for this reason an important partner for the EU to address societal challenges of common concern, such as ageing, food safety, environment protection or cleaner energy, and to strengthen the competitiveness of our industries,” said Barroso.

Research accounts for more than 4% of gross domestic product (GDP) in Israel and has the highest proportion of researchers in the business sector in the world. By comparison, the EU spends less than 2% of GDP on research.

Israel has participated in the EU’s research and innovation programmes since 1996. During the last budgetary period 2007-13 Israel participated in 1,500 EU research projects, and €780 million in EU research funding went to Israeli companies and institutions. Israel contributed €530m to the programme.

Horizon 2020 was launched last year as the research and innovation framework for the 2014-20 budgetary period. It has a budget of nearly €80 billion.