The Israel-US Binational Industrial Research and Development (BIRD) Foundation
on Tuesday announced the approval of $5.4 million of funding for six new
projects between Israeli and American companies in the fields of communications,
health-care information technology and personalized medicine.
“The
approved projects reflect a trend in demand for personalization with the help of
information technology in various fields such as health-care services and
entertainment,” BIRD Foundation CEO Eitan Yudilevich said. “There is high demand
for technology that enables the easy exchange of large quantities of
information.”
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The combined budget for the joint projects will be $15m.,
including the grants from the BIRD Foundation and additional private-sector
funding.
The six projects approved by the foundation’s board of governors
add to the more than 800 projects in which the BIRD Foundation has invested over
its 33-year history.
To date, BIRD’s total investment in these projects
has exceeded $280m., helping to generate direct and indirect sales of more than
$8 billion.
Among the approved projects are the development of an
automated medicine- pill dispensing system for home care by Israeli firm Vaica
Medical and US firm MTS Medication. Israel’s First Life and US firm Healthline
Networks will develop a health-care website consolidating drug effectiveness and
patients’ experience data.
The BIRD Foundation promotes collaboration
between Israeli and American companies in various technological fields for the
purpose of joint product development. It assists by locating strategic partners
from each country, making the necessary introductions and providing conditional
grants of up to $1m. for approved projects.
The 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 percent of a project’s
budget, beginning with R&D and ending with the initial stages of sales and
marketing.
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