During its meeting on June 28, 2021, held via video conference, the Board of Governors of the Israel-U.S. Binational Industrial Research and Development (BIRD) Foundation approved $6 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 value of all projects to $13 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 million (up to $1.5m for exceptional projects), the Foundation assists by working with companies to identify potential strategic partners and facilitate introductions.

Projects submitted to the BIRD Foundation are reviewed by 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 1000 projects which the BIRD Foundation has approved for funding during its 44-year history. To date, BIRD’s total investment in joint projects is over $370 million, helping to generate direct and indirect sales of more than $10 billion.

The projects approved include:

• Cyberint Technologies (Petach Tikva, Israel) and Secure Systems Innovation Corporation, dba X-Analytics (Arlington, VA) to develop an operational cyber threat intelligence capability to inform cyber risk financial decisioning.
• GrayMatters Health (Haifa, Israel) and the McLean Hospital Corporation (Belmont, MA) to develop personalized self neuro-modulation therapy for major depression disorder using clinical biomarkers.
• Over-Sat (Netanya, Israel) and MIL-SAT (Surry, VA) to develop a LEO Satellite End-User Mobile Terminal capable of tracking multiple satellites.
• Sensifree (Kfar-Saba, Israel) and the Cleveland Clinic (Cleveland, OH) to develop next generation non-Invasive, continuous Blood Pressure Monitor for hospital use.
• Skillreal (Ramat Gan, Israel) and Siemens DI (Plano, TX) to develop an enhanced high-accuracy AR system supporting workers on installation and assembly lines with automatic validation to increase productivity and reduce assembly errors.
• YonaLink (Jerusalem, Israel) and Trialjectory (Closter, NJ) to develop a platform to enroll diverse patients from diverse sites in clinical trials by automating the clinical trial value chain, from patient selection to data management.

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: “I am honored to serve as the new U.S. co-Chair of the Board and to be working alongside our Israeli partners, including the Israel Innovation Authority, to support the U.S.-Israel innovation relationship.  The projects that the Board approved last month, addressing major challenges and business opportunities in sectors from cybersecurity to advanced communications, demonstrate the continued value of the Foundation in creating synergies in the U.S. and Israeli innovation ecosystems.”

Dr. Amiram Appelbaum, Chief Scientist at the Ministry of Economy and Industry, Chairman of the Israel Innovation Authority, and co-Chair of BIRD’s Board of Governors said: “The partnership with the U.S. is highly significant for Israel, and the business partnerships between companies from both countries may be considered as ‘a whole greater than the sum of its parts.’ The BIRD Foundation’s Board of Governors has selected six wonderful joint projects in the fields of cyber, healthcare, satellites and automation that will benefit from the collaborations. We wish them success and invite more companies to contact the BIRD Foundation in order to leverage its services.”

Dr. Eitan Yudilevich, Executive Director of the BIRD Foundation, said: “In a world affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, with almost no cross-border, in-person meetings taking place during this time, BIRD’s role as a catalyst for the creation of new R&D partnerships has become even more impactful. The framework provided by the BIRD Foundation provides reduced risk and improved partnerships, attracting high quality, innovative proposals, which is reflected by the projects selected in this cycle.”

The deadline for submission of Executive Summaries for the next BIRD cycle is September 2, 2021. Approval of projects will take place during December 2021.