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There is some good news for Israel in the midst of yet another conflict.
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The Binational Industrial Research and Development (BIRD) foundation announced just last week a new, $9M investment in 11 New Israeli-American Cooperative Projects.
The decision was made during a meeting of the BIRD Board of Governors on June 26, in Washington D.C. The approved projects involve innovations in the areas of 3D Printing, Agro-technology, Information Security, and Homeland Security.
The chosen companies will also be able to receive private sector funding, putting the total value of all of the projects at about $25 million. Some of the cooperative projects include those between ColorChip, based in Yokne’am, and Gigoptix, based in San Jose, as well as between Genome Compiler and Amyris, Stratasys and Graphene Technologies.
The BIRD Foundation looks to promote collaboration between Israeli and American companies in various technological fields, for the purpose of joint product development.
Dr. Eitan Yudilevich, Executive Director of the BIRD Foundation, said, ”This is an impressive list of projects when you consider their technological innovation, diversity of applications, and partnerships: among them are a project that can advance 3D printing, an application to identify infections in water, which includes an American start up and an established Israeli utility, and a system to manage and optimize resources for paper manufacturing facilities.”
Mr. Avi Hasson, Chief Scientist at the Israel Ministry of Economy and co-Chairman of BIRD’s Board of Governors said: “The United States is a leading R&D partner of Israel in the various programs of the Office of the Chief Scientist. The BIRD Foundation continues to be the central vehicle in implementing strategic cooperation between the countries in the areas of Innovation and Technology. “
Binational Industrial Research and Development is an Israel-U.S foundation. The “binational” part of the Bird Foundation’s name comes from the two countries, Israel and America. It was founded in 1977 to promote industrial research and development cooperation between the U.S. and Israel.
BIRD works with Israeli and American companies in various areas of technology, and provides free assistance in locating strategic partners from both countries for developing joint products.
BIRD supports approximately 20 projects annually. It aids these projects without receiving any rights in the participating companies or in the projects themselves. The financial assistance is repaid as royalties from sales.