The recent decision by Ghent University (UGent) to withdraw from an EU-funded project on advancing bone tissue research does not affect the project but the university is requested to reimburse the unspent amount of the pre-financing it has received.
The university announced last Friday that it had officially withdrawn from the European research project OSTEONET, funded under Horizon Europe, EU’s R&D programme for 2021 – 2027, due to concerns about its collaboration with the Israeli partner, Tel Aviv University.
The withdrawal marked its first withdrawal from an ongoing collaboration with an Israeli partner that had received a negative assessment by its Human Rights Policy and Dual Use Research Committee.
The process to terminate ongoing collaborations with Israeli partners started already in May 2024, following pro-Palestinian student demonstrations and encampments on its campus in protest against Israel. The students gained also support from professors and university staff members.
Rik Van de Walle, rector at the time, invited the activists who had been demonstrating to a dialogue about the university’s human rights policy. In a letter to them, he wrote that he personally pleads for the discontinuation of any cooperation with institutions that are involved in human rights violations since 7 October 2023 (the day of Hamas’s terrorist attack on Israel).
In September 2025, a majority agreement was reached within the OSTEONET consortium on the termination of UGent’s participation in the project.
This was followed by contacts with the European Commission whether the termination of its participation in OSTEONET was ‘improper’ or ‘proper’, a distinction relating to potential sanctions. According to the university, the Commission recently announced that it no ‘longer’ opposed its withdrawal from the project but did not rule on the ‘improper’ or ‘proper’ nature of the action.
In practice the withdrawal has no impact on the project. A Commission spokesperson told The Brussels Times on Tuesday that the project continues with its remaining 15 partners, including Tel Aviv University. Ugent did not breach the grant agreement by pulling out from the project but the university is requested to reimburse the unspent amount of the pre-financing.
UGent considered Tel Aviv University a ‘problematic’ partner on human rights grounds but did not explain why. The Commission declined to provide a copy of its reply to Ugent.
In Horizon’s database Cordis, the OSTEONET project is described as an “innovative, bioinspired, and integrated approach to the development of engineered bone tissues mimicking healthy and aged bone that will be used in bioreactors as in vitro bone models for preclinical drug screening and basic physiology studies”.
The majority of the partners are academic research institutions with an Italian university, Università della Calabria, as coordinator. Out of the to total EU contribution of ca €1,5 million, the biggest grant (€363 000) went to Cellex, an Italian SME developing next-gen bioreactors for biotech, tissue engineering, and cultivated meat.
Tel Aviv University and Ghent University received relatively small amounts, €69 000 and €55 000 respectively. Two leading researchers at Tel Aviv University’s laboratories focus on bone structure, biomaterials and regeneration, using 3D printing of bone scaffolds and micro-CT to study the properties of bone tissue.
Critics say that by withdrawing from OSTEONET, Ghent University gave in to demands from a group of students to boycott peaceful civilian research projects with Israeli participation and did not defend freedom of academic research.
UGent claims that it is setting an “important precedent” within Horizon Europe. “Ghent University can now step up its efforts to terminate the other collaborations with problematic Israeli partners.”
