The approved projects, with an overall budget
of $16 million, involve innovations
in Environment, Electro-optics, Healthcare IT, and Quantum
Computing
TEL
AVIV, Israel, July 30,
2024 /PRNewswire/ -- During its meeting on
July 2, 2024, held in Washington D.C., the Board of Governors of the
Israel-U.S. Binational Industrial Research and Development (BIRD)
Foundation approved $6.55 million in
funding for six new projects between U.S. and Israeli companies. In
addition to the grants from BIRD, the projects will access
private-sector funding, boosting the total investment in all
projects to $16 million.
The BIRD Foundation promotes collaborations between U.S. and
Israeli companies in various technological sectors for joint
product development. In addition to providing conditional grants of
up to $1.5 million, the Foundation
assists by working with companies to identify potential strategic
partners and facilitate introductions.
The submitted projects are reviewed by BIRD staff and evaluators
appointed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology
(NIST) of the U.S. Department of Commerce and the Israel Innovation
Authority. The six projects approved by the Board of Governors are
in addition to the over 1100 projects the BIRD Foundation has
approved for funding during its 47-year history. To date, BIRD's
total investment in joint projects exceeds $396 million,
helping to generate direct and indirect sales of over $10 billion.
The projects approved are:
- Amarel Embedded Solutions (AES) (Yokne'am, Israel) and Gleason
Corporation (Rochester,
NY) to develop a Smart Machine platform to provide
real-time feedback on the machining process.
- CyberRidge (Tel Aviv,
Israel) and Molex (Lisle, IL) to develop a next-generation
optical key technology for post-quantum photonic layer
encryption.
- Datos Health (Tel Aviv,
Israel) and Permanente Health Care Ventures
(Portland, OR) to develop an
effective digital-first home-based pulmonary rehabilitation
service.
- Groundwork BioAg (Mazor, Israel), and Indigo Agriculture
Inc. (Boston, MA) to
develop a novel polymicrobial system that combines mycorrhizal
inoculants enabling carbon removal and bacterial inoculants
enabling efficient nitrogen acquisition for emission reduction in
Agriculture.
- Quai.MD (Tel Aviv,
Israel) and MUSC Health (Charleston, SC) to develop and implement a
Clinical Process Automation Platform to guide providers in the
emergency department.
- Quantum Art (Ness Ziona, Israel) and BlueQubit Inc.
(Los Angeles, CA) to develop and
optimize a quantum machine learning algorithm and a quantum
processor configuration and methods.
Ms. Mojdeh Bahar, Associate
Director for Innovation and Industry Services at the U.S.
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and co-chair
of BIRD's Board of Governors said: "BIRD's impact is not
to be measured only in the financial resources it provides but in
the transformative partnerships the Foundation helps foster. I am
proud of the hard work the BIRD Foundation team has put into
bringing these companies together. The projects approved during
this award cycle center on advanced technologies with great
commercial relevance. I join my fellow BIRD Foundation colleagues
in congratulating this cycle's grant recipients."
Dr. Alon Stopel, Chief
Scientist of Innovation at the Ministry of Innovation, Science and
Technology, and co-chair of BIRD's Board of Governors said:
"The latest BIRD Foundation's Board of Governors meeting reviewed
innovative projects submitted to the foundation, reflecting the
creativity and resilience of Israel's innovation ecosystem. The
foundation's investments help create Israeli American partnerships,
enabling companies to accelerate their development processes and
advance their products' time-to-market. Despite the challenges of
the war this year, this collaboration yielded successful projects
with potential for global impact in the fields of health,
agriculture, and quantum computing."
Mr. Jaron Lotan, Executive
Director of the BIRD Foundation, said: "In these challenging
times, both in Israel and
globally, the approval of these six innovative projects underscores
the resilience and creativity of our collaborative efforts. The
BIRD Foundation remains committed to fostering groundbreaking
US-Israeli partnerships that address critical needs and drive
technological advancements. We are proud to support initiatives
that enhance our industries and contribute to a brighter, more
sustainable future."
The deadline for submission of Executive Summaries for the next
BIRD cycle is September 5, 2024.
Approval of projects will take place in December
2024.
About the BIRD Foundation
The BIRD (Binational Industrial Research
and Development) Foundation encourages and facilitates
cooperation between U.S. and Israeli companies across a wide range
of technology sectors, offering funding to selected
projects.
The Foundation supports projects without taking any equity or
intellectual property rights from the participating companies or
the projects themselves. BIRD funding is repaid through royalties
from sales of products that were commercialized because of BIRD
support. The Foundation provides funding of up to 50% of a
project's budget, covering activities from R&D to the initial
stages of sales and marketing. The Foundation shares the risk and
does not require repayment if the project does not reach the sales
stage.
For more information, please contact:
Limor Nakar-Vincent, Deputy
Executive Director of Business Development and BIRD Energy
+972-3-6988315
limorn@birdf.com
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SOURCE The BIRD Foundation