THE HEBREW UNIVERSITY OF JERUSALEM

Their core work

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem is one of Israel's top research universities, with deep strengths in neuroscience, molecular biology, epigenetics, and computational life sciences. Their H2020 portfolio is overwhelmingly driven by ERC grants — 81 individual ERC awards across Starting, Consolidator, and Advanced categories — reflecting world-class principal investigators across multiple disciplines. Beyond life sciences, they maintain active research in quantum technologies, mathematics, computer security, and social sciences including political communication and intergroup relations. They serve as a bridge between European research networks and the Israeli research ecosystem, consistently attracting large individual grants for fundamental discovery.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In the early H2020 period (2014–2018), the university's research was concentrated on neuroscience and computational brain science — human and mouse brain mapping, neuroinformatics, neuromorphic computing, and neurorobotics — alongside foundational molecular biology in chromatin and stem cells. By the later period (2019–2022), the focus diversified significantly: molecular dynamics, NMR, quantum sensing, and machine learning gained prominence, while entirely new directions emerged in climate change, political communication, and intergroup relations. This broadening reflects a university moving from deep neuroscience specialization toward a wider, more interdisciplinary research profile.

Moving toward machine learning applications, environmental research, and social science — potential partners should look beyond their traditional life science strengths to these growing areas.

How they like to work

The Hebrew University is overwhelmingly a project leader: 103 of 172 projects (60%) are coordinated by them, driven by the high volume of individual ERC grants where the PI is automatically the coordinator. When they do join consortia as participants (63 projects), they engage in moderately sized European partnerships across RIA and MSCA networks. With 659 unique consortium partners across 47 countries, they are a high-connectivity hub — they rarely repeat the same partner set, instead forming new collaborations project by project.

An extensive network of 659 unique partners spanning 47 countries, making them one of the most broadly connected Israeli institutions in H2020. Their partnerships stretch across virtually all of Europe, with additional links through MSCA training networks and large-scale research infrastructure projects.

What sets them apart

The Hebrew University stands out for the sheer density of ERC grants — 81 individual awards is exceptional even among top European universities, signaling a concentration of world-leading principal investigators. As a non-EU associated country participant, they bring a distinct Israeli research ecosystem perspective and connections to sectors like agri-tech, cybersecurity, and biotech where Israel excels globally. For consortium builders, partnering with HUJI means access to investigators who have already been individually vetted and funded at the highest European level.

Highlights from their portfolio

• SynChI
  EUR 2M ERC Advanced Grant on striatal cholinergic circuits in movement disorders — their largest single-PI neuroscience award, running 6 years.
• Brain circRNAs
  EUR 1.97M ERC grant investigating circular RNAs in brain function — exemplifies their unique intersection of RNA biology and neuroscience.
• SIREN
  EUR 1.47M ERC grant on internet routing security — demonstrates reach beyond life sciences into cybersecurity, a strategically important Israeli strength.