Overview of Israeli collaborations

There are many questions about Dutch universities' collaborations with Israeli organizations. We understand the request to know with which partners academic institutions collaborate. Utrecht University has no institution-wide (institutional) collaborations with Israeli organizations. This page compiles information about research collaborations of Utrecht University and UMC Utrecht with Israeli organizations. This overview is updated regularly, for example when projects end, which can change the numbers mentioned.

Summary of the current policy of Utrecht University (UU) regarding collaborations with Israeli organizations (since May 2025):

  • An indefinite suspension applies to institutional collaborations with Israeli organizatons:
    - UU has terminated all university-wide (institutional) collaborations with Israeli universities. This includes, for example, the student exchange with the University of Haifa.
    - Until further notice, UU will not enter into any new institutional collaborations with Israeli organizations.
    - Until further notice, UU will also not initiate new project-based collaborations (individual or consortium-based) with Israeli organizations where contractual obligations are involved.
     
  • Individual contacts between academics remain possible.
  • There are currently ten ongoing temporary research collaborations with Israeli partners. These were individually evaluated in 2024. It was determined that these projects do not contribute to military applications and do not contribute to a deterioration of the human rights situation.
  • These research projects constitute a very small part of UU’s overall research portfolio. Terminating them would lead to disproportionately high costs and would harm relationships between individual researchers. For this reason, these ongoing research collaborations are not being discontinued.
  • With regard to Horizon projects, Dutch universities follow the position of the Dutch government, which has already taken steps towards ending Israel’s participation in the Horizon research and innovation programme.

Utrecht University and UMC Utrecht have decided in 2024 to make research collaborations better findable on our own website. This follows the University Council's request to reassess existing collaborations with Israeli organizations (login required), occupations and interviews with students and staff. In doing so, we hope to answer the call for greater transparency.

Given the polarization surrounding this issue, we do not share project names and names of individual researchers. We do, however, provide a brief account of the research topic and which Israeli organization is being collaborated with.

Education and research of the Faculty of Medicine/UMC Utrecht are partly the responsibility of Utrecht University, and both institutions collaborate closely in the fields of medicine and health sciences. Therefore, the research collaborations of UMC Utrecht were added to the overview on May 24 2024. These agreements are signed and reviewed by UMC Utrecht. Furthermore, the overview was updated after an evaluation of the existing collaborations (18 July 2024) and the completion of this evaluation (18 October 2024) and the decision not to enter into new collaborations with Israeli organisations until further notice (16 May 2025). The overview of UMC Utrecht's collaborations was updated on 14 October 2025.

Existing collaborations

Utrecht University has no so-called “Memoranda of Understanding (MoU's),” also called institution-wide cooperative agreements, with Israeli institutions. Utrecht University had student exchange agreements with three Israeli universities. Two of these agreements expired after Oct. 7, 2023, and were not renewed. These are the agreements with Hebrew University and Reichman University Herzliya. The third student exchange, with Haifa University, was terminated in May 2025.

Utrecht University and UMC Utrecht are currently involved in 13 research collaborations with Israeli universities and non-academic Israeli organizations. 

Most of these projects are European-funded research consortia involving multiple European partners as well as researchers from Israeli universities and non-academic Israeli organizations. The total number of partners is sometimes more than one hundred. Within such a consortium, UU cannot terminate the collaboration with only one of the partners involved. UU can only withdraw its own researchers, who are members of a specific research group, from the consortium. The other institutions involved will then presumably continue the project. All research collaborations have been evaluated. These are not defense-related projects and there is no risk of dual-use by defense. All the European collaborations can be found through the EU's CORDIS website.

This currently involves ten collaborations for Utrecht University in the following research studies:

  • Research looking at how to prevent irreversible change to ecosystems. With: Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.
  • European project aimed at training young scientists in the field of neurobiology. With: Weizmann Institute of Science.
  • Research aimed at imaging the impact and regulation of corruption. With: The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
  • Research on ways to combat accelerated aging. With: University of Haifa.
  • Consortium identifying climate change risks to make Europe more resilient to climate change. With: Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.
  • Research to better assess risks around chemicals to better protect people and the environment. With: Israeli Ministry of Health. Update 16 May 2025: UU aims to withdraw from this project and is investigating whether this is possible.
  • Research into the production of lignin, an organic compound that could potentially be used as a green feedstock in the future. With: Daren Labs.
  • Added on 18 July 2024: Research on how CO2 can be sequestered in building materials. With: Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.
  • Added on 18 July 2024: Research on the ecological impact of floating structures at sea, especially focused on solar and wind energy. With: Cameri.
  • Added on 16 May 2025: An investigation into Quantum Dots (miniscule particles) and their stability. With: Materials Zone.

This currently involves three collaborations for UMC Utrecht in the following research studies:

  • Research on allogeneic cell therapy for the heart. With: Biological industries Israel Beit Haemek ltd and The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
  • Research on workflow optimization in interventional oncology. With: Philips medical systems technologies ltd.
  • Research on reducing antibiotic resistance. With: The Foundation for Medical Research Infrastructural Development and Health Services and medical center Tel Aviv.

In addition to these formal collaborations, there are individual researchers who maintain contact and collaborate with Israeli colleagues. Such collaborations are not recorded.

Conditions for collaboration with external partners

Utrecht University and UMC Utrecht collaborate with various knowledge institutes and organizations to find answers to questions raised in society. All new collaborations of Utrecht University and UMC Utrecht are reviewed, for example in terms of research integrity and knowledge security risks. In addition, existing collaborations with Israeli partners have been re-evaluated given the current context. We do not want certain scientific ties and exchange collaborations to contribute to the (continuation of the) cycle of violence. This involves an evaluation per collaboration, and not a decision about all collaborations with Israeli institutions. Utrecht University will not enter into any new collaborations with Israeli organizations until further notice

Utrecht University and UMC Utrecht consider transparency about external collaborations important. Therefore, we previously shared which collaborations there are with the fossil industry; which chairs are not funded from the first flow of funds; and the ancillary positions of all professors.