r/europe 2d ago

Data Non-EU countries receive more funding from European Innovation Fund than 2/3 of EU countries combined

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2.1k Upvotes

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u/Terrible-Duck4953 India 2d ago

Why does the UK get so less funding than Israel.

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u/shatureg 2d ago edited 1d ago

Forget about the UK. Why do actual EU countries get so much less?!

EDIT: The downvoters in the comments below really show you can't have a normal conversation when Israel is involved. There's some militant people with an agenda in the comments whenever that country's name is dropped here.

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u/gookman European Union 2d ago

As painful as it sounds it's because they don't innovate or they do on very small scales. And that as /u/deceased_parrot said is because of corrupt politicians that do not try to foster a culture of innovation or try to improve the education in these countries.

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u/shatureg 1d ago

Your comment doesn't actually answer my question. Why isn't South Korea on the list? Taiwan? The US? All of them are very innovative countries.

Is Israel participating in some sort of EU program that those other countries aren't?

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u/gookman European Union 1d ago

Your question was:

Why do actual EU countries get so much less?!

My reply is exactly about that. If you're looking for some nefarious reason there isn't one. Lack of education is a big factor in lack of innovation.

If you want to know about Israel I believe other users have answered that question.

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u/shatureg 1d ago

You're cutting off the first part of my comment: "Forget about the UK." I was clearly implying "I understand why the UK gets so little given that it's no longer in the EU". But it also doesn't surprise me that the UK or Norway get funding given how closely they are interlinked with the EU economy. For the UK it might still be leftover commitments post-Brexit. For Norway, it's literally in the single market.

Why Israel? Why not South Korea? Feel free to answer the question. You don't need to imply that I'm a nazi. I'm not a nazi. It's a legitimate question even though the name of the country is Israel, believe it or not.

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u/gookman European Union 1d ago

Sounds like you just want to argue with people online. Have a nice day.

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u/shatureg 1d ago

No, I'm literally just asking a question (No this is not a dog whistle, don't freak out). I'm not gonna argue with you if you just provide an answer (which you haven't despite your claims).

Is Israel part of some sort of EU program for collaborative research? I know I could google it at this point, but it's very interesting how difficult it seems for a certain type of person to answer simple questions once the name Israel is dropped. If you just point me to such a program, the above list would make somewhat sense again.

EDIT: I googled it myself now. Israel is part of Horizon Europe.

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u/Unlucky_Mess3884 17h ago

That is correct. Israel pays into the Horizon Europe program, whereas the US, S. Korea, and Taiwan do not.

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u/MartinBP Bulgaria 2d ago

Because you actually need an innovative economy to create projects worth funding. In Bulgaria we can't even get the post offices to accept card payments and universities still need you to go apply in person. Why would we be getting that money? So another crook can build a villa under the guise of an "eco-house concept" because he slapped a solar panel on top?

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u/s7oev 1d ago edited 1d ago

Stop with the self-degrading bullshit, there's plenty of innovation happening in Bulgaria, quick example - one of world's best AI institutes (INSAIT) is in Sofia, funded by Google and Amazon, and co-organized by Sofia University with ETH Zurich and EPFL - 2 of the best schools for computer science in the world.

In fact in this very graph, you can see we are doing quite well with the received funding for a country of our size. We are also the best country in this graph from Eastern Europe.

Don't get me wrong, we can (and should) do better, but self degradation will not help us improve even further.

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u/shatureg 1d ago

Why Israel tho? If the funding is completely agnostic to the country of origin, you might as well pump that money into projects in South Korea or Canada, no?

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u/europeanguy99 1d ago edited 1d ago

Because South Korea and Taiwan never applied to be part of the program, while Israel did. Canada actually joined parts of the program this year as well.

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u/shatureg 1d ago

I love how I'm getting downvoted for asking a question and how you're not even mentioning which program you're talking about (which wasn't mentioned in the post or anywhere in this specific comment chain). I googled it myself eventually. The program is Horizon Europe and none of you mfers thought it necessary to mention it a single time for whatever reason.

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u/deceased_parrot Croatia 2d ago

Why do actual EU countries get so much less?!

Because the local politicians can't steal it with impunity so they don't bother with it. Ditto with other EU funds.

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u/ContributionSad4461 Norrland 🇸🇪 2d ago

Less innovative projects to invest in I assume

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u/geo0rgi Bulgaria 2d ago

The UK should not be getting funding to begin with. It could be there are still some programs running started before 2020. But either way, why the fuck is Israel receiving EU funding is something I don’t understand.

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u/ConsciousStop 2d ago

Why shouldn't the UK get funding, when it is an associate member of Horizon Europe and contributes €2.4 billion annually to it?

Source: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_23_6327

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u/geo0rgi Bulgaria 2d ago

Oh didn’t know about that, as far as I remember the tories back then left anything they could connected in any way to the EU during the Brexit means Brexit times

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u/saxonturner 2d ago

Yeah that’s the story you have been fed but it’s far from reality…

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u/krazydude22 Keep Calm & Carry On 2d ago

Even during those times, UK wanted to be associated with Horizon. It was delayed by the EU and settled when Tory PM Sunak agreed the NI Protocol with the EU.

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u/Terrible-Duck4953 India 2d ago

Do you have any idea about UK's place in the Research industry. UK does more high quality research than germany or France. After the US all the best brains in the world go to the UK. If Europe wants to become as powerful as US or China it needs to harness it's best.

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u/Dr_Racos 2d ago

I suspect it might be that the UK was removed from horizon for a period of time before becoming an associate member again. If memory serves.