Israel-US R&D fund earmarks $9m. for infrastructure

10 new projects will be joining an already existing database of 835 BIRD projects involving $295 million worth of investments.

By SHARON UDASIN
Energy, Water Minister Uzi Landau at press conference_390 (photo credit: Gidon Sharon)
Energy, Water Minister Uzi Landau at press conference_390
(photo credit: Gidon Sharon)
The Israel-United States Binational Industrial Research and Development Foundation (BIRD) announced on Monday that the organization will be providing $9 million in funding for 10 new joint projects in infrastructural sectors.
BIRD, established in 1977, receives joint funding from the American and Israeli governments to back collaborative research and development projects involving one American company and one Israeli company. Financing up to 35 “full-scale” and 20 “mini” projects each year, the foundation provides up to 50 percent of each company’s research and development expenses, according to the organization.
“The diversified projects that were approved address the market need for innovation in every area of our daily life such as water technologies, environmental recycling, cyber security and firefighting,” said BIRD executive director Dr. Eitan Yudilevich.
One of the 10 new projects is a system for advanced water leakage control, which will be developed by Steam Control Ltd. in Israel and American Water Works Company in New Jersey. A second project, to be generated by Polysack Flexible Packaging of Israel and Applied Extrusion Technologies of Delaware, will focus on building sustainable materials that enable the recycling of shrinkpackaged food containers, a statement from BIRD said.
In the telecommunications sector, Ubiqam of Israel and Global Wireless Technologies of New Jersey will be developing a mobile relay station for 4G long-term-evolution (LTE) with mesh networking capabilities – in which the connection is dispersed among a variety of nodes rather than relying on one single source.
Also in telecommunications, Vayyar Imaging Ltd. of Israel and Agilent Technologies of California will be creating a low-cost, high-performance network analyzer, the BIRD statement said.
Foresight of Israel and Net Optics Inc. of California will be developing business continuity solutions for websites, while GONET Systems of Israel and Juniper Networks of California will be generating an analog WiFi beamformer – a type of processing system for signal transmission.
Looking at the transportation industry, Silentium of Israel and Johnson Controls of Wisconsin will be creating an ambient active noise reduction solution for the automative industry, according to BIRD. Meanwhile, Elbit Systems Ltd. of Israel and Trace Worldwide Cooperation of California will be developing advanced aerial firefighting tools for American helicopters.
In the biomedical arena, B.R.F Engineering Ltd. of Israel and InfraScan, Inc. of Pennsylvania will be working on a device for early detection of abdominal hematoma. Also in the biomedical sector, LifeOnKey of Israel and Target Health of New York will be integrating clinical trial electronic databases with electronic health record systems, the statement from BIRD said.
These 10 new projects will be joining an already existing database of 835 BIRD projects involving $295 million worth of investments, which have help generate direct and indirect sales amounting to more than $8 billion, the organization added.
“The benefits for both the US and Israeli economies show that it is a worthwhile effort,” said Avi Hasson, chief scientist of the Industry, Trade and Labor Ministry and co-chairman of the BIRD board.
“The technological diversification of projects that were approved in this round reinforces the continued economic value that this program continues to bring.”