R&D centers in periphery get gov’t boost
07/16/2012 04:45
Funding tripled for 8 centers, located in periphery, ranging from Kiryat Shmona and the Golan Heights in the north to the Negev.
Northern Negev area slated for new towns Photo: SPNI Open Landscape Institute
The cabinet on Sunday decided to increase the Science and Technology Ministry’s
budget for its regional research and development centers by NIS 9
million.
This means that the funding has tripled for the eight centers,
which are located in the periphery, ranging geographically from Kiryat Shmona
and the Golan Heights in the north to the Negev.
A year ago, Science and
Technology Minister Daniel Herschkowitz appointed Prof. Hagit
Messer-Yaron, president of the Open University and a former director-general of
his ministry, to look into the issue of funding for the centers and cooperation
between them and academia, industry and agriculture development
centers.
She and her committee were also asked to investigate the
economic and social influences of these centers on the regions where they are
located and the commercialization of know-how that they created.
At the
meeting, the cabinet decided to endorse Messer- Yaron’s recommendations and
change the support model so that it will give incentives for applied research
and cooperation with industry. The government also decided that next year, an
additional NIS 6 million will be allocated by the Science and Technology
Ministry as well as NIS 3 million by the Regional Development
Ministry.
Herschkowitz congratulated the government on the decision,
noting that the regional R&D centers are the “jewels in the crown” of his
office’s work in the periphery. The project has served as a model for those in
other countries, and UNESCO even asked to learn about them and copy them for use
in developing countries, he said.