UGent accelerates withdrawal from research projects involving Israeli partners

14 May 2026

Ghent University intends to withdraw simultaneously from five remaining “problematic” Horizon research projects involving Israeli partners, rector Petra De Sutter has announced following a board meeting.

In recent months, there has been increasing criticism of the protracted withdrawal process that UGent announced in 2024. These are the last five major Horizon projects with Israeli partners from which it had previously decided to withdraw, De Sutter says. Three other collaborations will expire before a withdrawal procedure can be finalised.

The university intends to use the same method as it did to withdraw from the European project OSTEONET. According to De Sutter, that case demonstrated that withdrawal is possible without unilaterally terminating contracts or risking heavy compensation claims.

“The board of governors has said: we are proceeding with the withdrawal from those five projects simultaneously,” she says.

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De Sutter acknowledges that the policy has consequences for the university, and that some international research partners are pulling out because UGent is making it more difficult to collaborate with Israeli institutions.

"The board of governors has said: we are proceeding with the withdrawal from those five projects simultaneously"

“We have already lost many partnerships,” she says, referring to fewer research projects, lower research income and fewer PhDs.

Not all collaborations with Israeli institutions are being discontinued. There are five remaining collaborations with partners which, in the university's view, are not involved in serious human rights violations. Furthermore, it does not regard four projects listed on the European CORDIS platform as institutional collaborations because it does not itself collaborate with the Israeli partners involved.

^{#FlandersNewsService | A demonstration condemning Israel military actions in Gaza and Lebanon during a ceremony to award honorary doctorates by UGent, 20 March 2026 © BELGA PHOTO JAMES ARTHUR GEKIERE}

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