The UvA will under no circumstances contribute to warfare in any way, and we also don't intend to participate in exchanges in the field of military-related education. As far as we can assess, our current collaborations meet these criteria, and new collaborations are assessed by the Third-Party Collaboration Committee. Below, you can read about the collaborations that are currently in place.

The UvA has three so-called Memoranda of Understanding: one agreement for the exchange of four students per year, one for six, and one for eight. One agreement is with the University of Tel Aviv, another with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and the third with Ben Gurion University. None of these outgoing exchanges are currently active due to negative travel advice from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Ongoing European research projects

In addition, UvA researchers participate in European research projects involving Israeli researchers or companies. These are not institutional ties, but collaborations in which individual UvA researchers are involved as part of Horizon Europe or ongoing H2020 projects. These collaborations are listed on the EU's CORDIS website. You can also find an overview below.

The collaborations are:

1. Inherit INHibitors, Explosives and pRecursor InvesTigation
2. European infrastructure for Rydberg Quantum Computing
3. Real Time End to End 6G Networks
4. States' Practice of Human Rights Justification: a study in civil society engagement and human rights through the lens of gender and intersectionality
5. Mobility justice for all: framing safer, healthier, and happier streets
6. Machine learning for Sciences and Humanities
7. Comparing voluntary compliance through different doctrines and nations
8. Establishing a comprehensive understanding and taxonomy of children's digital maturity
9. ModBioTerp: Modelling the Biochemistry of Terpene Synthases*

* This project was set up in November 2023 and approved by the ERC in April 2024, before the UvA announced a temporary moratorium on new collaborations in May 2024. Now that it has started, albeit with delay, the project has been added to this overview (October 1, 2024). The content of the project is not connected to human rights violations.

One of the research projects, the INHERIT project, focuses on detecting explosives to prevent attacks. This project does not contribute to Israel's military actions; it aims to prevent attacks, not to engage in military violence.

UvA-wide dialogue 

In the coming period, we will continue the internal discussion on the ethical framework and collaboration with external parties (especially focused on countries in war situations). We will do this in three steps: sharpen, test, decide. We’ll do this in the coming weeks, in close consultation with all stakeholders. This dialogue is comparable to the dialogue sessions we organised previously around the topic of collaboration with the fossil fuel industry.

Demonstrations and dilemmas

The war between Israel and Hamas has a significant impact on individual students and staff within our community. We understand the need to have discussions on this topic at the university. In doing so, we believe it is important for these conversations to be open, respectful, and mindful of each other's values. Demonstrations are allowed at the UvA, within the context of the house rules. No face coverings, no blockades, no overnight stays, no atmosphere of intimidation, and education and research must be able continue uninterrupted.

More information 

For current information about the demonstrations, go to uva.nl/protests.