Yeah, Israel and UK contribute to the Horizon Europe’s budget, and are fully eligible to the grants under the program.

The program is managed by the European Commission. Thus, in theory, the countries outside the EU pay but have no influence on the decision-making bodies. This can be a big disadvantage in more politically loaded processes. I suspect (from my experience with the ERC) that the selection process under Horizon Europe is build very much to focus on evaluating each project separately, not providing equity by country. Israel and the UK get a lot of funds since from there come project that, if not good, are at the very least popular. Or rather: That the decision boards, usually filled with specialists from the respective fields, find to have the highest feasibility times impact (figuratively, as, to the best of my knowledge, no such value is calculated).

I see no conspiracy or a bypass to support Israel with extra money here. They were just good at writing grant proposal (or however you call it in the startup world), and they were allowed to be a part of EU’s research program as they have always been.

They benefit from it nevertheless. And it is high time to end the collaboration. It is already being discussed. And it is good to know it would hurt indeed - thanks for the research, OP’s sources!

https://efe.com/en/latest-news/2025-07-28/eu-suspension-israels-horizon-europe-gaza-attacks/