WASHINGTON, D.C. -- During its meeting on June 26, 2014, held in
Washington D.C., the Board of Governors of the Israel-U.S. Binational
Industrial Research and Development (BIRD) Foundation, approved $8.9
million in funding for eleven new projects between Israeli and American
companies. In addition to the grants from BIRD, the projects will access
private sector funding, boosting the total value of all projects to
approximately $25 million.
The BIRD
Foundation promotes collaboration between Israeli and American companies
in various technological fields for the purpose of joint product
development. In addition to providing conditional grants of up to $1
million for approved projects, the Foundation assists by working with
companies to identify potential strategic partners and facilitate
introductions.
Projects submitted to the BIRD Foundation are
thoroughly reviewed by evaluators appointed by the National Institute of
Standard and Technology (NIST) and by evaluators appointed by the Chief
Scientist’s Office of the Israeli Ministry of Economy.
The eleven
projects approved by the Board of Governors are in addition to the 889
projects which the BIRD Foundation has approved for funding during its
37 year history. To date, BIRD’s total investment in these projects has
been over $308 million, helping to generate direct and indirect sales of
more than $10 billion.
The approved projects are as follows:
• ColorChip (Yokne'am, Israel) and Gigoptix (San Jose, CA) will develop next generation pluggable transceivers
•
DVP Technologies (Tel Aviv, Israel) and DVTEL (Ridgefield Park, NJ)
will develop video surveillance for sea and waterside applications
•
Evogene (Rechovot, Israel) and Marrone Bio Innovations (Davis, CA) will
develop novel agricultural insect control products from microbial
sources
• Galileo Satellite Navigation Ltd. (Rishon Le Zion,
Israel) and Cadence Design Systems, Inc. (San Jose, CA) will develop
software GNSS implementation
• Genome Compiler Ltd. (Jerusalem,
Israel) and Amyris (Emeryville, CA) will develop "Biofab" – synthetic
biology software platform-as-a-service
• iReveal Design Automation
(Nazareth, Israel) and Alphabyte Technologies (Santa Clara, CA) will
develop scalable end-to-end verification
• Lightapp (Herzliya,
Israel) and Pratt Industries (Conyers, GA) will develop resource
optimization for paper manufacturing facilities
• Mekorot (Tel
Aviv, Israel) and ANP Technologies (Newark, DE) will develop an
automated test system for detection of pesticides in waters
• Stratasys (Rechovot, Israel) and Graphene Technologies (Novato, CA) will develop Graphene enhanced 3D printing materials
• TeleMessage (Petach Tikva, Israel) and Sprint (Overland Park KS) will develop secure RCS messaging
•
ZDF Medical (Tiberias, Israel) and Molex/ Polymicro Technologies
(Downers Grove, IL)) will develop technology for high energy delivery
devices for medical applications
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.”
Dr. Phillip Singerman, Associate Director for
Innovation and Industry Services at the U.S. National Institute of
Standards and Technology (NIST), and co-Chairman of BIRD’s Board of
Governors said: “Once again we had a very robust set of proposals from
which we chose the 11 winning projects. The proposing US companies are
from 14 States and range in size from 3 employees to 40,000. As we have
seen over the past several years, increasingly small US companies are
participating in the BIRD program, learning from their Israeli
counterparts in a true partnership. This year 75% of the proposing US
companies are under 500 employees.”
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. The success of the BIRD Foundation provides a solid base
for further expansion of cooperation with the United States, through
Federal R&D programs and programs with various States, where the
Chief Scientist has finalized agreements during the last two years.”
The
deadline for submission of Executive Summaries for the next BIRD cycle
is on September 16, 2014. Approval of projects will take place in
December 2014.
About the BIRD Foundation
The BIRD (Binational
Industrial Research and Development) Foundation works to encourage
cooperation between Israeli and American companies in various areas of
technology, and provides free assistance in locating strategic partners
from both countries for developing joint products.
The BIRD
Foundation supports projects without receiving any rights in the
participating companies or in the project itself. The financial
assistance is repaid as royalties from sales. The Foundation provides
support of up to 50% of a project’s budget, beginning with R&D and
ending with the initial stages of sales and marketing. The Foundation
shares the risk and does not demand that the investment be repaid if the
project fails to reach the sales stage.
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