"Horizon is our academic oxygen. It is a matter of life and death for Israeli academia"
Researchers warn that losing EU support may lead to a crisis at Israel's world-class institutions.
“If Israel is removed from the European Union's Horizon research and development program, it’s like removing Israeli sports from the Olympics,” warns a senior official at the Council for Higher Education. "But unlike sports, where Israel is relatively marginal, in academia we are a global power. Such a move would risk isolating us like Russia and collapsing the foundation of Israeli research."
Israel has participated in the EU’s R&D frameworks, including Horizon Europe, for 25 years under association agreements. Horizon Europe is the world’s largest and most prestigious research program, with a seven-year budget of €95.5 billion. Israel's inclusion allows its researchers to compete on equal footing with Europeans, and often to lead. Though removing an entire country from the Horizon agreement requires unanimous approval by all 27 EU member states, suspending participation in specific programs requires only a qualified majority. That makes a suspension both plausible and dangerous.
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Pro-Palestinian demonstration at Sorbonne in Paris, September 2024
(Photo: Reuters/Sarah Meyssonnier)
The Israeli government's 2021 announcement of its continued participation in Horizon emphasized the program's broad value: “The program brings scientific and economic benefits to both Israel and Europe. It is politically significant and contributes to knowledge-intensive industry, scientific progress, and mutual growth.”
Yet that participation is now under threat. At a recent Council of EU Foreign Ministers meeting, the Netherlands initiated a review of Israel’s association agreement over human rights concerns in Gaza, potentially including Horizon. The motion gained support from 17 of the 27 EU members. While canceling the overarching agreement would be nearly impossible without full consensus, suspending Horizon access requires only 55% of EU countries representing 65% of the population. It’s not an easy threshold, but it’s not unreachable either.
The Israel Innovation Authority remains cautiously optimistic: “Given population-weighted voting, and support from Germany, Italy, and Hungary, suspension seems unlikely at this stage.” But the phrase “at this stage” is telling. The fact that suspension is now being seriously discussed sets a precedent, and the longer the Gaza conflict continues, the more tenuous Israel’s position becomes.
Israel’s ambassador to the EU, Haim Regev, warned last week: “There is a shift we need to address. For over a year we’ve pushed the hostage narrative. EU countries are now saying, ‘How much longer can we keep telling the Bibas family story? End the war and release the hostages.’”
The Council for Higher Education issued a rare and urgent statement: “Canceling the Horizon agreement would deal a severe blow to Israeli academia and rapidly accelerate its deterioration. The likely result is brain drain, with leading researchers seeking opportunities abroad, undermining one of Israel’s core economic growth engines.”
A Global Scientific Leader at Risk
Israeli academia consistently punches above its weight. Three Israeli universities rank in the top 100 globally in the prestigious Shanghai Index, placing the country in the world’s top ten relative to population. Eleven academic departments are ranked in the global top 50. Horizon Europe offers ERC (European Research Council) grants worth €2 million, crucial funding for breakthrough research. By comparison, Israel Science Foundation grants average just $800,000.
From 2007 to 2024, 20% of Israeli ERC proposals were approved, second only to Switzerland (21%). Since Switzerland’s departure from Horizon, Israel now leads all participating countries, with an approval rate recently climbing to 24%. In engineering and natural sciences, the success rate is even higher, 26%. Israeli researchers have won 225 ERC grants over 18 years, including 121 for early-career scholars.
Beyond funding, these grants offer prestige and access to elite collaborations and infrastructure.
Israel contributes 1.3 billion shekels annually to Horizon, about the same as it receives in return. Why not simply fund domestic research instead? Switzerland did, but researchers are reportedly leaving the country due to lack of ERC eligibility. Moreover, only half of Israel’s contribution is managed by the Israel Innovation Authority. The rest comes from other ministries, which may cut funding without a binding EU agreement in place.
As a senior source at the Council of University Presidents put it, “We are heavy participants in Horizon. It is impossible to imagine Israeli academia without it.”
“If our participation in Horizon is harmed, it would be a disaster,” says Emmanuel Nahshon, coordinator of the fight against academic boycotts. Ben-Gurion University’s Prof. Michal Bar-Asher Siegal adds, “So far, boycotts have had minimal impact because Israel is an academic powerhouse. But the moves to kick Israel out of Horizon are very alarming. Suspension from Horizon would be catastrophic. Horizon is our academic oxygen. It is a matter of life and death for Israeli academia. And this is happening because of the re-entry into Gaza and the statements about starvation and not providing humanitarian aid.”
She notes that losing Horizon access would make broader academic boycotts far more feasible. “Winning Horizon grants means prestige and global partnerships. Without it, our place in the academic world will erode. Combine that with U.S. research cuts under Trump, and it’s a two-front assault on Israeli science. This government must understand that academia is Israel’s No. 1 growth engine.”
Prof. Milette Shamir, VP of International Relations at Tel Aviv University, echoes this concern: “If we are dropped from Horizon, it would be a catastrophe. Significant research today requires international collaboration. Even if we redirected every shekel, we couldn’t replace access to leading research networks in Europe.”
Even without suspension from Horizon, academic boycotts have surged. According to Nahshon, the number of incidents rose from 500 in February to 700 by May. These include rejections of Israeli research submissions, lecture invitations, and participation in conferences. Institutional boycotts, once rare, now span over 20 universities, especially in the Netherlands and Belgium.
“If this worsens, we could end up like Russia,” says Shamir, “where international academic cooperation collapsed after the Ukraine invasion. We’re seeing early signs of the same pattern here. And it’s moving from the margins to the mainstream.”
