Israeli academia loses ground in Europe as prestigious research grants fall
The number of ERC grants won by Israeli researchers has plunged from 30 in 2024 to 11 this year. The setback comes ahead of crucial negotiations over Israel's future participation in Horizon Europe.
Only 11 Israeli researchers have won ERC grants for early-stage researchers this year, from the European Research Council, part of the Horizon Europe program, one of the world's most prestigious research funding frameworks. That compares with 30 grants in 2024 and 10 in 2025, continuing a sharp decline in Israel's performance. Senior academics are unsure whether the drop reflects a quiet academic boycott of Israel, increased competition and changes in the grant criteria, or a combination of factors.
Until 2024, Israel regularly won around 30 ERC grants for early-stage researchers each year, an exceptional figure relative to the country's size that reflected the strong standing of Israeli academia in Europe. But the number of grants fell by 67%, from 30 in 2024 to 10 in 2025, moving Israel from sixth place among participating countries to the middle of the table and to a level more consistent with its population size.
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The Weizmann Institute and The Hebrew University.
(Photos: The Weizmann Institute, Wikipedia)
There are also technical explanations for at least part of the decline. The three countries that had traditionally led the ERC rankings were Britain, Switzerland and Israel. Switzerland did not participate in the program from 2022 through 2024 and returned in 2025, which could explain part of Israel's decline. Another change was the increased weight given to interviews and the reduced weight assigned to applicants' CVs. In Israel, promising young researchers often complete postdoctoral work at leading universities in the United States, a factor that had helped Israeli applicants score highly under the previous criteria.
Yet these technical changes appear to explain only part of the decline. Of the Israeli institutions, Tel Aviv University received almost half of this year's grants, five. That is an increase from three last year, but still half the 10 it received in 2024. The Hebrew University received no grants, compared with three last year and 10 in 2023. The Weizmann Institute received one grant, the same as last year, compared with eight in 2024. The other recipients were the Technion with two grants, Bar-Ilan University with two and Ben-Gurion University with one.
Winning an ERC grant carries enormous prestige and is one of the clearest international measures of the strength of a country's research community. Israel's sharp decline therefore represents a serious warning sign for its academic sector. Horizon Europe, under which the ERC operates, is the world's largest research and innovation program for scientific and industrial cooperation and one of the most prestigious sources of research funding. The current seven-year Horizon Europe program has a total budget of approximately €95.5 billion.
Israel has participated in European research and development programs, now known as Horizon Europe, for 25 years under cooperation agreements with the EU, known as Association Agreements. The arrangement allows Israeli researchers to compete for funding on broadly equal terms with their European counterparts, and Israeli scientists have historically distinguished themselves through their success in the program.
Against the backdrop of attempts to impose an academic boycott on Israel, the most serious potential threat to Israeli academia has been efforts to suspend Israel from Horizon Europe. Those efforts have so far failed. "If Israel is removed from Horizon, it's like removing Israeli sports from the Olympics," a senior official at the Council for Higher Education warned.
Ben-Gurion University's Vice President for Global Engagement, Prof. Michal Bar-Asher, similarly described Horizon as "the oxygen pipeline of academia and it's a matter of life and death for Israeli academia."
The stakes could rise further in 2027, when negotiations over Israel's participation in the next agreement are expected to take place. If the war in Gaza and the violence in the territories continue, Israel could face demands to restrict or condition its participation.
