AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): An Israeli media outlet acknowledged Tel Aviv's academic isolation and described its position as deteriorating.
The newspaper Calcalist reported today, Sunday, that Israel's share of prestigious European research grants has sharply declined, and that reported cases of foreign researchers refusing to cooperate with Israeli institutions have increased.
The media outlet, noting that academic officials have warned that the consequences could go beyond budgetary issues, added that Israel's position in Europe's most prestigious research grant program has severely deteriorated.
Calcalist went on to refer to the announcement of grant recipients for early-career researchers by the European Research Council (ERC) on Thursday, and wrote that Israeli researchers, after consistently receiving about 30 grants annually until 2024, received only 10 grants in 2025 and 11 grants this year.
According to this report, in the senior category, the number of Israeli recipients also fell from 12 grants in 2024 to 7 in 2025. This decline comes amid increasing academic boycotts of the Zionist regime.
The removal of the regime from the "Horizon Europe" program has long been a strategic goal of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement, and Tel Aviv's position in this program has now clearly weakened.
Itay Ater, a figure from Tel Aviv University and the "Academy Protest" group, attributed this decline in part to the deterioration of the Zionist regime's international standing.
Ater noted that the actions of the Israeli cabinet over the past four years have seriously damaged its image in the world, and this is reflected in the decrease in research grants from the European Union.
He warned that the consequences could go beyond individual grants. The academic's remarks also suggested that without European research grants and cooperation, more researchers will leave the occupied territories, and fewer will return.
Calcalist noted that if the Gaza war and violence in the territories continue, Israeli universities could face a far more difficult environment.
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