India and the European Union have successfully concluded negotiations for India’s association with Horizon Europe, the EU’s flagship research and innovation programme, the European Commission announced on 6 November. The deal would let Indian researchers, universities and businesses receive funding directly from the €93.5 billion programme and lead collaborative projects with European partners.
Association is envisaged to begin in January 2027, once the agreement is signed and approval procedures on both sides are complete. The two sides are expected to sign the formal agreement in January, according to reports from Brussels. It would place India in the programme’s final year: Horizon Europe runs from 2021 to December 2027.
India’s participation covers Pillar II, “Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness”, the largest part of the programme. The fields it covers — health, digital technologies, industry and space, climate, energy and mobility, food and the bioeconomy — closely match India’s research priorities, according to India’s Ministry of Science and Technology. Indian participants would gain access to European research consortia and cutting-edge infrastructure, and to joint work on critical technologies and standards.
“This marks an important step forward for EU-India relations, strengthening scientific cooperation, creating new opportunities in research, and deepening the EU-India strategic partnership,” the Commission said. Ekaterina Zaharieva, the EU commissioner for startups, research and innovation, said the agreement would create opportunities for businesses and researchers on both sides to develop technologies and address shared challenges.
The talks moved quickly. Exploratory discussions opened on 6 February 2026 after the EU-India summit in New Delhi on 27 January, and formal negotiations began on 17 July after a meeting of the India-EU Trade and Technology Council in Brussels. The deal builds on the two sides’ Agreement on Science and Technology Cooperation, first signed in 2001 and recently renewed until 2030.
The agreement also lands weeks before Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to visit Brussels in mid-December to sign a long-negotiated India-EU free trade agreement. India would join 23 countries already associated with Horizon Europe, including the UK, Canada, Japan, South Korea and Switzerland. How much India will contribute financially to the programme has not been announced.
Sources: European Commission; Press Information Bureau, Ministry of Science and Technology, India; IANS, “India, EU negotiations to join ‘Horizon Europe’ programme completed” (https://ianslive.in/india-eu-negotiations-to-join-horizon-europe-programme-completed–20261107113948); Times Higher Education, “India set to join Horizon Europe in January 2027” (https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/india-set-join-horizon-europe-january-2027).
