EU Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation Carlos Moedas is visiting Israel from January 10th to 12th, 2016. During his stay he will meet President Reuven Rivlin; Minister of Science, Technology and Space, Ofir Akunis; Chief Scientist of the Ministry of Economy, Avi Hasson; Head of the Planning and Budget Committee of the Council of Higher Education, Prof Yaffa Zilbershats, and key Israeli entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. He will also visit a number of academic and research institutions.
It is the Commissioner's first visit to Israel in his current capacity. The visit highlights the importance of the 20 year long cooperation in the areas of research, science and innovation that has been mutually beneficial. Since Israel's accession to the European research programme in 1996 until today, more than 4,600 Israeli institutes from research and industry and other organisations have received grants from the EU that sum up to about 1.6 billion euros. The Israeli Ambassador to the EU: “The cooperation between Israel and the EU in the sectors of research and science is a key pillar of our relationship - demonstrating Israel’s important scientific contribution in these areas.”
Israel is a full partner to the current HORIZON 2020 programme (for the period 2014-2020) that has a budget of around 77 billion euros. Its contribution amounts to about one billion euros in total. HORIZON 2020 is the world’s largest programme in terms of the extent of cooperation between industry and science and it allows companies and researchers access to highly important research developments, to create new networks and increase the competitiveness of the scientific and industrial sector in Israel. Therefore the Israeli government is willing to invest large financial sums for its participation in this programme.
The European Union equally recognizes the importance of Israel's membership in the programme in light of its leading role in science and technology. Thus, European industry and academia also highly benefit from Israel’s contribution.