North African countries given access to European research funds—at a price

Researchers from five North African countries may get special access to the EU’s next research funding programme—but only if their governments feel they can afford it.

Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia qualify for association agreements that would grant their researchers the same rights as those in EU member states to Horizon 2020, the next EU research funding programme. This would allow scientists in North African countries to lead EU-funded projects without collaborating with researchers from EU member states, something they cannot do at present.