India and EU to start negotiations soon on joining Horizon Europe

The EU and India will soon start negotiations on the South Asian country joining the Union's Horizon Europe research programme, Ekaterina Zaharieva, European Commissioner for Start-ups, Research and Innovation, said.

Speaking at the European Parliament's Committee for Industry, Technology and Research (ITRE) on 23/03/2026, Zaharieva said: "Now, we are ready to start negotiations with India," adding that the two parties finished exploratory talks on 20/03/2026.

In February 2025, during an official visit to India, Zaharieva invited Jitendra Singh, the Indian Science Minister, to consider joining Horizon Europe. They then started exploratory talks at the end of January 2026.

Horizon Europe has a total budget of €93.5 billion for 2021-2027 and the European Commission has proposed increasing funding to €175bn under the next EU budget for 2028-2034, known as the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF).

Horizon Europe accounts for 23 associated countries, i.e. non-EU countries that participated in the programme, with the newest additions being Switzerland and the UK, which recently rejoined…