Anm.: Prof. Dr. Hanoch Ben-Yami ist Mitglied des Netzwerks jüdischer Hochschullehrender in Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz sowie Panelist beim European Research Council. In dieser Funktion hat er ein Schreiben an die Präsidentin des ERC, Prof. Dr. Maria Leptin, gerichtet, in dem er erhebliche Bedenken hinsichtlich einer möglichen anti-israelischen Verzerrung in den jüngsten ERC-Förderentscheidungen äußert.
Dieses Schreiben wird vom Netzwerk jüdischer Hochschullehrender ausdrücklich unterstützt. Mit dieser Unterstützung verbindet sich auch das Anliegen, die darin formulierten Beobachtungen und Fragen zur Kenntnis der Öffentlichkeit zu bringen.
Nachfolgend der Brief von Prof. Dr. Hanoch Ben-Yami.
Wednesday, 28 January 2026
Prof. Maria Leptin
ERC President
Dear Prof. Maria Leptin,
I am writing to you concerning the success rate of Israel in the ERC 2025 applications. I think the results show an unacceptable bias among ERC panellists, a bias that should urgently be addressed with immediate effect, especially as the panellists are meeting next week to discuss the ERC 2026 Starting Grant applications.
Not all results of the 2025 applications are available to me, but what is available already shows the bias I have mentioned. I derive my data from the Dashboard of ERC funded projects and evaluated proposals, and from the items on the News | ERC site.
Over the years, Israel has had the highest average success rate of all countries applying for ERC grants. Its success rate from 2019 to 2024 was 23%, with the Netherlands and Germany 2nd and 3rd with 21% and 20% success rate, the general rate being 14%. If we limit ourselves to Starting Grants, then Israel leads with 26% success rate over that period, the Netherlands and France being 2nd and 3rd both with 18% success rate, the general success rate being 13%. Staying with the starting grants, Israel success rates from 2019 to 2024 were,
According to the available results, in 2025, Israel was awarded 10 starting grants, a success rate of 10/107 = 9.3%, less than half of its lowest success rate in the previous six years, and 0.36 of its average.
This is no fluctuation. It shows a bias of the panellists. I was myself a panellist for the 2025 starting grants, and I regret to say that this bias agrees with things I witnessed among panellists.
I have the total number of applications in 2025 only for starting grants, so I cannot compare success rates for other grants; and I have no advanced grants data. Moreover, although both the number of consolidator grants and synergy grants awarded to Israelis in 2025 is the lowest in 2019–2025 (13 and 0), these numbers are generally low enough to not rule out fluctuations:
Still, it is unlikely that there will be a fluctuation for the lowest number for both kinds of grant.
Remaining with the data, while in 2019–24, 29 starting grants were awarded to researchers from the Weizmann Institute (6, 3, 3, 6, 3, 8), in 2025 only 1 grant was thus awarded. Similarly, in 2019–24, 33 consolidator grants were thus awarded (6, 4, 4, 8, 4, 7), while in 2025 only 1 grant. Apparently, the ERC panellists thought that the damage of about €500 million inflicted by the Iranian missiles that hit the Weizmann Institute was insufficient and that they should add their own contribution.
The bias can be analysed in additional respects, but the data above are sufficient for this letter.
On all ERC panels of which I was a member, we were shown videos and slides against implicit bias and were alerted to that possibility. The possible bias always mentioned is the gender-based one, which I haven’t witnessed on any of the panels. The bias we are clearly facing now is different and appalling, one I haven’t expected to meet with at the ERC.
Apart from the moral issue involved, even from practical considerations alone the ERC’s anti-Israel bias is ill-advised. As the EU is struggling with global challenges today, it acknowledges that compared to the US and China it is less innovative, especially on IT aspects; The EU is also aware it needs to invest more in its defence and must take control of its security. Israel is exceptional in its innovativeness, not least in the IT domain; and it can obviously make an essential contribution to the EU’s defence and security needs.
I have heard you talk on several occasions and interacted with you a few times as panellist. On all these occasions you have left a strong impression on me, as a capable person who is aware of the priorities the position requires. I am fully confident that you shall take this recent development among ERC panellists seriously and act quickly and effectively against it.
History doesn’t repeat itself, said Mark Twain, but it rhymes. And we know with which earlier lines of European history rhyme those recently written by ERC panellists. The ERC President should rise to the challenge and stop the ERC from going down this dark path.
Sincerely,
Prof. Hanoch Ben-Yami
Vienna