Israeli participation in H2020 ‘in doubt’

A senior Israeli source has cited doubt in the country’s participation in the next research and innovation framework programme, Horizon 2020.

According to the official, who is quoted in the Tel Aviv-based newspaper Haaretz, EU guidelines aim to prevent money from Brussels going to any institutions or R&D activities in the Occupied Territories. The senior Israeli source said: “We are not prepared to sign such an item in our contracts with the EU… the result may be termination of our entire co-operation in the areas of the economy, science, culture, sports and academia.”

The guidelines state that any ‘private Israeli entity that wants to receive funding from EU must demonstrate that it has no links to West Bank, East Jerusalem, or the Golan Heights’. The Israeli Government has responded by saying the EU should focus on ‘peace promoting measures.’ It’s thought the government is seeing the move by Brussels as recognising the Occupied Territories as not part of Israel.

Under the agreement, any institutions located beyond the 1967 border will be automatically excluded from EU R&D funding; establishments located inside the border will be asked to sign a territoriality clause.

In a statement last month by EU Vice President Catherine Ashton, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy reiterated the EU’s position. She said “the EU…reiterates the long-held position that bilateral agreements with Israel do not cover the territory that came under Israel’s administration in June 1967.”

The European Research Council recently announced 32 grants had been awarded to Israeli research as part of the 2013 Starting Grant call, the third highest after the UK and Germany. Israel received €634m during FP7.