12 May 2022
The EU and Japan open Horizon Europe association talks

In the context of the EU-Japan Summit in Tokyo, leaders on both sides acknowledged the launch of discussions to explore the possibility of Japan joining the Horizon Europe Programme as an associated country. Both sides are committed to ensure that their scientific communities benefit from a closer relationship in research and innovation, with respect of the shared values and principles, and in line with the EU Global Approach strategy on international cooperation on R&I. The EU and Japan will now take forward the discussions on enhancing cooperation for jointly addressing global societal challenges by opening exploratory talks on Japan’s possible association to the programme.
There is already an excellent level of cooperation on Science & Technology between Japan and the EU. Under Horizon 2020 (2014-2020), Japan was successful in 176 projects, involving 219 Japanese entities connecting them to research entities across Europe and beyond. In addition, there have been 6 coordinated calls with Japanese ministries and funding agencies and 4 co-funded projects. So far, cooperation is strong in ICT, climate action, health and renewable energy (biofuels).
Source: EC News