As participation by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in European collaboration research programs is less than has been striven for, this study investigates the motives of R&D-based SMEs for (non)participation in these programs. Based on the resource-based view, we formulate a set of hypotheses about incentives and barriers that influence the likelihood of participation by SMEs. These hypotheses are empirically tested using a survey of 247 Dutch R&D-based SMEs. We find that European collaborative research programs attract the participation of rather limited numbers of especially science-based SMEs having prior experience with international collaboration, based on the incentives of cost sharing and knowledge sharing and the barrier formed by the costs of participating in these programs. Policy measures that might improve the participation of SMEs in European collaborative research programs are derived from our results.