Raanan Dinor, Director General of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Energy, signed new Director General instructions that will enable the launch of a new program in the Office of the Chief Scientist, called "Netaf", to finance academic research into nanotechnology research in the field of water purification
Avi Blizovsky
Direct link to this page: https://www.hayadan.org.il/nanowater.html
Ra'anan Dinor, Director General of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Energy, signed the directives of the Director General of News which will enable the launch of a new program in the Office of the Chief Scientist, called "Netaf", to finance academic research into nanotechnology research in the field of water purification.
The plan is launched as the first step of implementing the conclusions of the Dan Midan Committee.
The Midan Committee investigated the field of nanotechnology in Israel and formulated an individual plan for its promotion. The Midan Committee established three central principles for the plan and they are: Israel is in danger of falling behind the world, a national policy must be established and the issue must be given national priority, the activity must be directed and the effort concentrated in specific areas.
In addition, the committee identified the field of water purification as a sub-field of nanotechnology, which has a wide market yearning for efficient and cheap solutions, as well as a field where Israel can have a comparative advantage.
It should be noted that according to the rules of the program, an open call for nanotechnology research in the field of water purification will be published. A grant of up to $45 will be given to research proposals and researchers who are not necessarily experts in water, but rather to researchers from other paradigms who can bring new knowledge and ideas to the field.
Dr. Eli Ofer, the chief scientist at the Ministry of Science and Technology said that at least 70 companies in the nanometric field are currently operating in Israel. At the same time, it should be understood that nanotechnology is not a trivial continuation of the miniaturization process, but a miniaturization that changes the properties of the materials and changes the physical processes.
Dr. Ofer added that Israel, like the USA, the European Union, Japan, Taiwan and many other countries, should recognize the nano field as being of national importance and allocate generous budgets for infrastructure and research in academia and industry.
Ilan Peled, director of the Magnet and Netef programs, added that another significant activity in the field of nanotechnology is the activity of a nanomaterial association within the Magnet program in the Office of the Chief Scientist. The association includes 13 industrial companies and another 4 academic research groups to study the field. The association's budget for 5 years is approximately NIS 80 million.
The Office of the Chief Scientist invested NIS 70 million in R&D in the field of satellite communications
The ISIS association, the information highway in space, operating within the framework of the magnet program in the Office of the Chief Scientist, has successfully completed its activities and succeeded in achieving its goals.
The association began its activities in the middle of 1999 and operated for 5 years with an aggregate budget of approximately NIS 90 million, with 66% of the budget invested by the office of the chief scientist and the balance by the association's companies.
The company that led the association was "Gilat Satellite Networks" initiated and led the association in which the companies "Orbit", "Shiron", "Scopos" and "Mikrokim" and research groups from Tel Aviv University, Ben-Gurion University and the Technion took part.
The association designated the research and development work for advanced satellite communication issues and developed tools for utilizing the medium in space to transmit the ever-increasing volumes of information.
Among the outstanding achievements of ISIS, it is possible to mention the development of the technologies that make it possible to meet the required performance while lowering the costs of the satellite end unit (terminal) to 1/3 of their cost before the start of operations. For example, the cost of the terminal for the home consumer has been reduced to less than $1,000, compared to the $3000 that existed before the start of the association's activities, and of course with the increase in data transfer volumes.
In addition to this, the new technology developed by the members of the association manages to reduce the cost of operating the system by about 50%.
The association was able to lay the foundation stones of the next generation of terminal units by obtaining advantages in terms of mobility, utilizing the satellite segment, coding and working in a newly assigned frequency range (Ka range).
The aforementioned achievements enable wideband communication, such as fast internet surfing, anywhere in the world including remote places in the air, at sea and on land by means of a cheap satellite terminal.
Dr. Eli Ofer, the Chief Scientist at the Ministry of Science and Technology, said that thanks to the association's extraordinary achievements, the Israeli companies that were partners in the R&D will be able to position themselves in the first rank of the companies dealing in the field with advanced technology that allows them to offer customers improved performance of the system at a competitive price .
Ofer also added that in terms of the development of the field in the last 10 years, it appears that the center of control and leadership of the field both in terms of developments and in terms of markets has moved from the "military" field to the civilian field and that the leading companies in the field today are actually civilian companies such as the companies operating in Magad.
Ilan Peled, director of the magnet program, said that today 13 associations are working on research and development of cutting-edge technologies in various fields.
Peled added that this year, despite the decrease in the Magnett budget, the activity of 3 new associations was approved: for the development of technologies for future mobile communication (up to and including the fourth generation of cell phones), for the development of broadband wireless technologies for use at short ranges and for the development of means for remote identification of suspicious objects.
The process of renewal in the areas of activity in Magnet, are the need of the hour, because the ability to compete in international markets requires constantly being at the forefront of technological knowledge, an area in which Israel may have a relative advantage, if we combine forces from industry and academia as realized in Magnet.
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