Israel signed an agreement on Sunday to be a partner in the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research project.
UPI reported on the agreement signed by the European Commission’s President José Manuel Barroso and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu:
With a budget of more than $100 billion over the next seven years, the Horizon program is billed by the European Union as the largest research and innovation program of its kind in the world.
“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 aging, food safety, environment protection or cleaner energy, and to strengthen the competitiveness of our industries,” Barroso said in a statement.
The Horizon 2020 website describes the initiative:
Seen as a means to drive economic growth and create jobs, Horizon 2020 has the political backing of Europe’s leaders and the Members of the European Parliament. They agreed that research is an investment in our future and so put it at the heart of the EU’s blueprint for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth and jobs.
By coupling research and innovation, Horizon 2020 is helping to achieve this with its emphasis on excellent science, industrial leadership and tackling societal challenges. The goal is to ensure Europe produces world-class science, removes barriers to innovation and makes it easier for the public and private sectors to work together in delivering innovation.
Although Israel has been expanding its trade ties with Asia, Israel’s main trading partner remains the European Union.
The European Jewish Press provides further historical details of Israel’s scientific cooperation with Europe, which has been going on since 1996.
During the last programme (2007-13), Israeli public and private institutions contributed their scientific expertise to over 1,500 projects. Reflecting the strength of Israeli research, Israeli participants achieved a high success rate, particularly in obtaining European Research Council (ERC) and Marie-Skłodowska Curie grants.
In the thematic programmes, Israel participated most actively in the areas of information and communication technologies, health and nanotechnology. Some 780 million euros in EU research funding went to the Israeli participating entities. On its side, Israel contributed over 530 million euros to the programme.
In addition, last year Israel became a major partner in Europe’s Galileo space program. Earlier this year, Israel became the 21st member state of CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research.
[Photo: European Commission Audiovisual Services / YouTube ]