Zaharieva invites India to join Horizon Europe

The European Commission is looking to expand the list of countries associated to its €93.5 billion research and innovation programme by inviting India to consider joining Horizon Europe.

“India has talent and a long tradition, so I invited science minister Jitendra Singh to consider associating India to Horizon Europe,” EU research commissioner Ekaterina Zaharieva has announced during a trip to New Delhi this week. 

Zaharieva has not presented a timeline for the negotiations, but India would join a select club of countries that are part of Horizon Europe, including the UK and Israel. Last year, the EU concluded talks with Switzerland. Further afield, New Zealand, Canada and South Korea have negotiated association to Pillar II of the EU Research Framework Programme. Singapore and Japan are also in talks to join. 

Zaharieva was part of a broader EU delegation headed by Commission president Ursula von der Leyen. The EU officials spent two days in India with the goal to advance talks on a free-trade agreement, including on closer cooperation in research and innovation, which could be finalised by the end of this year.

The visit is the first of its kind in the history of India-EU bilateral ties and comes after the new US administration led by Donald Trump has decided to start a trade war with Europe, Canada, Mexico and other allies.   

During the visit, Zaharieva discussed strengthening cooperation in research and innovation with the south Asian country and attended the second meeting of the EU-India Trade and Technology Council.

According to the commissioner, India and the EU could work together on a flurry of projects related to climate neutrality, disaster prevention, oceans, quantum, biotech, semiconductors, security, defence, AI, and space. 

While the decision on joining Horizon Europe is pending, the EU and India agreed on “joint research cooperation through exceptional coordinated calls on recycling of batteries for electric vehicles (EVs), marine plastic litter, and waste-to-hydrogen,” a Commission statement read. 

The total funding for the joint calls is estimated at €60 million. The Commission said that it would be “matching Indian contributions” from the Horizon Europe budget.

In the future, the EU and India could also cooperate on wastewater treatment technologies. “We’re committed to supporting advanced technologies to tackle plastic waste (India generates 10 million tons annually) and recycling EV batteries (200 million by 2030),” Zaharieva said on social media. 

“We’ll also encourage greater involvement from young researchers through MSCA [Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions], where India is the top non-EU beneficiary with more than 3,000 grants,” she added.

Earlier this month, Zaharieva told the Munich Security Conference that the EU was “really open to work with the US,” but some research leaders have suggested that Donald Trump’s return to the White House could push the 27-member bloc to look for other partners.

“Both the EU and India realise that we need each other. Partnerships and trust are most important in the current turbulent world,” the research commissioner said.

The two sides have also agreed to strengthen cooperation between the European AI Office and India AI Mission, including on large language models. In addition, the EU plans to work with India on semiconductor supply chains, including potential joint research and development on chip design and advanced processes for process design kits.