Israel is set to sign an agreement with Horizon Europe, the largest research and innovation program of its kind in the EU, the European Commission said Monday.
The agreement for the seven-year program should be signed before the end of the year. Once it is signed, Israeli programs will be eligible for a wide variety of grants from a project with a global budget of more than €95 billion (NIS 355b.).
Horizon Europe offers the closest form of cooperation in research and innovation with non-EU countries. It is marked by joint projects and mutual access to a wider pool of excellence, innovation and research infrastructure.
This year marked the 25th anniversary of the successful EU-Israel collaboration in research and innovation. This cooperation has been consistently evolving, generating win-win benefits along the way.
In exchange for giving Israel access to a vast international research network, the European Research Area has benefited from Israel’s high level of excellence and its outstanding innovation capacity.
Since 1996, about 5,000 research contracts have been signed as part of the cooperation. Israel-based projects received a total of €1.36b. in funding within the framework of the Horizon 2020 program, which just ended.
Joint research efforts have yielded successes in many fields, including climate change, public health and safe transportation.