Research in academia in the style of startups

The Minister of Science and Technology, Prof. Daniel Hershkowitz, appeared before the Science and Technology Committee of the Knesset this morning and reviewed his ministry's vision, activities and goals for the coming year. Among other things, he referred to innovative programs to encourage research by individual researchers for a single year

The Minister of Science and Technology, Prof. Daniel Hershkowitz, appeared before the Knesset's Science and Technology Committee this morning and reviewed his ministry's vision, activities and goals for the coming year. Minister Hershkowitz emphasized that the Ministry of Science and Technology focuses on leading infrastructural-strategic research, bridging basic research and applied research. He stated that his priorities will be the reduction of the brain drain and the expansion of scientific education to all levels of the population, while bringing new and young populations closer to science.

Minister Hershkovitz: "Israel invests about a million dollars in each scientist and the fruits of our investment are reaped by the USA, where about 3,000 of the 4,000 Israeli scientists work abroad. We must prevent this phenomenon and return the Israeli scientists to Israel. Israel's sole resource is its human resource, and it must be invested in and nurtured."

Minister Hershkowitz said that today there is a listening ear in the government for the promotion of science and that the increase in the budget of the Ministry of Science by 60% indicates this. The minister reviewed the activities of the Ministry of Science on its various programs: the infrastructure plan, science and community, the regional research projects, international science relations and space, which the Ministry of Science trusts.

The minister announced that the ministry picked up the gauntlet thrown down by MK Meir Shtrit, chairman of the Knesset's science committee, and announced the establishment of a coordinating body for science, which would include the minister of science, the president of the National Academy of Sciences, the head of the National Academy of Sciences, the head of the Ministry of Education, the head Mpaat and the chief scientists of the Ministry of Science and the Ministry of Science and Technology.

The minister added that one of the goals of the ministry is to change the government's R&D system: to carry out a reorganization of the science administration as an executive arm of the R&D to implement the R&D policy in the government ministries and to 'revive' the ministerial science committee as an additional executive tool for the implementation of long-term science policy.

Also, the ministry will establish infrastructure start-up research programs to focus R&D in Israel. The program will fund dozens of one-year research grants to individual researchers and help them perform initial tests and experimental proofs of revolutionary ideas.

The Chief Scientist of the Ministry of Science, Prof. David Mendelovitz said that by approving the increased budget for our ministries, the government sent us a message of changing the public agenda and prioritizing the field of scientific and technological research. We at the Ministry of Science will take this message forward, initiate new programs and expand existing programs, so that more scientists can participate in the scientific work funded by the Ministry.

The chairman of the MOLMP, Prof. Oded Abramski, praised the new minister and the staff of the Ministry of Science and said that the tenure of a science minister, who is a scientist, is a monumental opportunity to raise the profile of science in Israel, and that the MOLMP, as an advisory body, expects his words to be carried before the newly established Ministerial Committee for Science. "I see good days for research, science and technology in Israel."