The winners for the establishment of three of the first four centers of excellence (I-CORE) were selected

Professor Benny Giger, chairman of the National Science Foundation, which co-leads the Centers of Excellence program: "All the proposals submitted for the establishment of the first centers reflect well the scientific strengths of the State of Israel"

The Minister of Education and Chairman of the National Assembly Gideon Sa'ar, and Chairman of the Committee for Planning and Budgeting, Prof. Manuel Trachtenberg announced today the winning groups for the establishment of three of the first four centers of excellence:

• In the field of "Molecular Basis for Diseases in Humans" a group led by Prof. Haim Sider from the Hebrew University and in collaboration with researchers from the Hebrew University, Tel Aviv University, Bar Ilan University, Sheba Medical Center and Hadassah Medical Center won.
• In the field of "Cognitive Processes" a group led by Prof. Yadin Dodai from the Weizmann Institute of Science, in collaboration with researchers from the Weizmann Institute of Science, Tel Aviv University, Bar Ilan University, Emek Jezreel College and Sourasky Medical Center won.
• In the field of "Computer Science" a team led by Prof. Yishai Mansour from Tel Aviv University and in collaboration with researchers from Tel Aviv University, the Weizmann Institute of Science and the Hebrew University won.

In the field of "alternative energies" the decision will be made soon and will be published.

Centers of Excellence initiative

The Israeli Centers of Research Excellence initiative (I-CORE: Israeli Centers of Research Excellence) was formulated last year as part of the multi-year plan for the higher education system, was presented to the government by Minister Sa'ar and Prof. Trachtenberg and was adopted by it at its meeting on March 14, 2010.
The program includes the phased establishment of up to 30 centers of excellence over the next few years, in the various research fields - natural sciences, humanities and society. The budget for the establishment and operation of the centers of excellence will amount to a total of 1.35 billion NIS (equally funded by the Planning and Budgeting Committee, strategic partners and the winning institutions). Each center will bring together a select group of leading researchers in the field - faculty members at various institutions (universities, colleges, hospitals and research institutes), as well as outstanding Israeli researchers who will return from abroad ('repatriation of minds') and join one of the institutions and the center of excellence.
The centers of excellence will promote in-depth, groundbreaking and innovative research in their field and will serve as an anchor for research infrastructures and effective collaborations of leading researchers from various institutions in the field. The centers will encourage and promote, each in their own field, the high-quality research activity in the State of Israel and will be a central pillar in strengthening and realizing the scientific potential in these fields. The centers will provide the new researchers with particularly beneficial research support, which includes, among other things, a research grant of hundreds of thousands of NIS per year for five years (depending on the nature of the field), and an initial absorption grant for research equipment and the establishment of a laboratory.
The program is coordinated by a steering committee consisting of 11 members who faithfully represent the academic spectrum. The committee is chaired by a member of the OT, Prof. Shimon Yankelevich from Tel Aviv University. Dr. Liat Maoz manages the program on behalf of the HOT.
The National Science Foundation, under the leadership of Prof. Benjamin Giger of the Weizmann Institute, the chairman of the foundation's academic management and Dr. Tamar Yaffe-Mitovach, the foundation's CEO, is entrusted with the process of judging, operating and scientific control of the centers. The program is accompanied by an international scientific advisory committee (Scientific advisory committee), which consists of leading scientists in the world in the various fields, including several Nobel Prize winners.

In July 2010, the steering committee of the centers of excellence announced the topics for the first four centers of excellence, and they are: systemic approaches to the study of the molecular basis of diseases in humans: from genomic research to personalized therapy; advanced research of cognitive processes; topics at the forefront of computer science; Sources of renewable, alternative and sustainable energies.

In September 2010 preliminary proposals were submitted for the establishment of the centers and in December the full proposals were submitted. In total, 9 proposals were submitted to all four centers in which seven research universities, three colleges and three hospitals from around the country are partners. In all the proposals, the names of about 60 outstanding Israeli researchers from the best universities and research institutes in the world appeared who expressed their willingness to return to Israel and join the centers.

Winners
1. In the center of excellence in the field of the molecular basis for diseases in humans, a group led by Prof. Haim Sider from the Hebrew University won.
The group includes 19 veteran researchers from the Hebrew University, Tel Aviv University, Bar-Ilan University, Sheba Medical Center and Hadassah Medical Center, and already in its first year the center will receive at least four additional new researchers who have returned from the Broad Institute in Massachusetts, Harvard Medical School, and -The Children's Hospital in Boston. The center will deal with genetic regulation research in complex human diseases.

2. In the center of excellence in the field of cognition, a group led by Prof. Yadin Dodai from the Weizmann Institute won. The group includes 24 veteran researchers from the Weizmann Institute of Science, Bar-Ilan University, Emek Jezreel College, and Sourasky Medical Center, and already in its first year, the center will receive at least three additional new researchers returning from UCLA, Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Stanford University . The center will deal with the research of reconstructive intelligence: from the perceived to the remembered and back.

3. In the Center of Excellence in Computer Science, a group led by Prof. Yishai Mansour from Tel Aviv University won. The group includes 24 veteran researchers from Tel Aviv University, the Weizmann Institute of Science and the Hebrew University, and already in its first year the center will receive at least four additional new researchers who have returned from Microsoft's research laboratory in New England, from Columbia University, from Yale University, from Berkeley, and from MIT. The center will study algorithms.

The decision regarding the group winning the establishment of the center of excellence in the field of alternative energy will be made in the coming days.

The first centers of excellence are expected to start operating soon. Over the next few years, dozens of new researchers who will return from the best universities in the world are expected to be absorbed into these centers.
The judging process

The process of judging and evaluating the submitted proposals was managed and coordinated by the National Science Foundation, and was carried out by four international judging committees, one for each field.

According to Prof. Benjamin Giger, the chairmen of the judging committees and members of the committees are world-renowned researchers from abroad, who were chosen after a careful examination of their academic status, their experience in managing judging and evaluation committees, and their in-depth knowledge of the various aspects relevant to the submitted requests, while making sure that there is no Conflicts of interest between the chairman and committee members and the applicants.
The judging committees conducted in-depth discussions on the quality of the proposals on their various components, and addressed both the strengths and weaknesses of each of the applications, and the extent to which they correspond to the objectives of the program for centers of excellence. The members of the committees emphasized that in all the submitted applications, scientific excellence and great potential for advancing scientific research in Israel and reviving minds were expressed, and that the competition between the proposals was tough. They also expressed great appreciation for the Centers of Excellence program and its expected contribution to research and the higher education system in Israel.

The chairman of the judging committee in the field of the molecular basis of diseases in humans was Prof. Eric S. Lander, a faculty member at MIT and the Harvard Medical School and founder and director of the Broad Institute - a world-leading institute for genomic biology research. Prof. Lander was one of the leading researchers in the human genome mapping project and today serves as the head of the advisory committee to US President Barack Obama on science and technology issues.

The chairman of the judging committee in the field of cognition was Prof. Richard Shiffrin, a professor at Indiana University, who developed basic theories in the field of cognition on the subjects of memory retrieval and interaction of automatic and attentive cognitive processes. Prof. Shifrin served as a member of the National Academy of Sciences in the USA and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and was awarded the Warren Medal and the Rommelhart Prize for his work in the field.

The chairman of the judging committee in the field of computer science was Prof. David P. Dobkin, Dean of the Faculty of Computer Science at Princeton University. His research deals with the development of theoretical models in the fields of computational geometry and computer graphics. Prof. Dobkin is an editorial member of leading professional journals in the field, served as the head of the executive committee of the Geometry Research Center at the University of Minnesota and was a member of the executive board of the DIMACS research center from the founding of the NSF.
Dr. Tamar Yaffe-Mitovach said that the judging process was based on a combination of providing opinions and grades for the various aspects of the application by committee members (in each of the areas) and internal discussions between them, with the aim of formulating an unequivocal recommendation regarding the winning application.
The recommendations of the judging committees were submitted to the higher steering committee of the program, discussed and approved by it.
Continuation of the program
The steering committee for the program is currently working on selecting the topics for the next wave of centers of excellence, which will include about 10 more centers of excellence.
On 20.1.11/XNUMX/XNUMX, the steering committee of the program issued a broad call to the entire academic community to propose topics for the next waves of centers of excellence. Any group of three or more Israeli researchers (from the country or abroad), at least one of whom is a senior faculty member at an Israeli institution of higher education, could propose a topic. In addition, an appeal was made to the heads of institutions to propose topics that would reflect the institutional priorities.
Dr. Liat Maoz, director of the Centers of Excellence program at the Botanic Gardens, stated that the guiding principle was to create a process with the broad participation of the academic community, so that the fields that will be chosen will faithfully reflect the priorities and scientific interest of the researchers in Israel.

The submission of the topics ended at the end of February, as part of which about 150 proposals for topics were received, which are shared by over 1,200 researchers, coming from about 40 institutions in Israel and about 30 other institutions abroad. The proposals received were in a wide variety of subjects: life sciences, medicine, exact sciences, engineering, social sciences, education, law, business administration and humanities. Broad multidisciplinary collaborations between researchers belonging to different institutions also stood out in the proposals.
According to Prof. Yankelevich, in order to select the following topics, the steering committee of the program established four disciplinary sub-teams: life sciences and medicine; exact sciences and engineering; social sciences, education, law and business administration; and the humanities. Each sub-team is headed by a member of the steering committee from the relevant field, and the members of the team are diverse and senior academics in Israel from the relevant fields.
The teams were aided in their work by suggestions received from the scientific community, and recently submitted preliminary recommendations to the steering committee. In the coming weeks, the steering committee is expected to decide on the list of topics for the next wave.
Also, the steering committee will discuss in the coming months the changes and adjustments in the way the centers operate in preparation for the next wave in light of the experience gained in the process of selecting the first four centers. After the decisions are formulated, calls for the establishment of the following centers will be announced.