Scientific research in Israel

Commonly known as “start up nation”, Israel is still leading global scientific research, despite its little population and a serious international situation. This is due to two key-points: first, a competitive R&D investments, which brought high quality to Israeli universities; second, a public driven linkage between scientific research and commercial companies, which produces more investments in R&D. As a matter of fact, Israel has been included in Horizon 2020, the European Union (EU) €80 million funding program as the only non-European State that could join in. But something is going wrong – and it's getting worse as time and actors go by. All began in July, when the new guidelines, issued by the European Commission expressly in view of Horizon 2020, stated that “in the case of grants and prizes, only Israeli entities having their place of establishment within Israel’s pre-1967 borders will be considered eligible”. This statement has created a strong opposition by the Israeli government, as Israel was ready to renew its great performances in the previous program, the EU 7th Framework Program (Fp7).