The plan will allow Israel to promote important initiatives with European support, such as strengthening R&D in traditional industries, life sciences, water and environmental technology, etc., as well as promoting joint R&D initiatives with European venture capital funds.
Thanks to Israel's central position in the "Eureka" program and despite being the only non-European company in it, Israel was chosen to head the program in the 2010-2011 working year, when it will also host the inter-parliamentary conference that will be held in the Knesset.
The Minister of Trade and Industry, Binyamin (Fouad) Ben Eliezer says that "Israel's election to the presidency of the European R&D program is a key pillar in strengthening the system of political and business ties with the European community and with the European countries that are members of Eureka."
The minister added that "the importance is especially great these days, since projects that we finance in this framework not only create jobs for engineers and technological experts, but also shorten the time to reach the international market, and allow access to foreign funding sources. I have no doubt that the Eureka presidency, beyond being an unprecedented image achievement for the State of Israel, will allow us to maximize these benefits for the Israeli industry."
According to Dr. Eli Ofer, the Chief Scientist at the Ministry of Defense, "During the year of the presidency, Israel will be able to determine the agenda of the European program, and will allow us to promote important initiatives with European support, such as strengthening research and development in traditional industries or in other priority areas such as life sciences, technology water and environment and the like, as well as promoting joint R&D initiatives with venture capital funds in Europe and Israel." The chief scientist also noted Israel's successful participation in other European R&D programs, especially the 7th framework program for R&D of the European Union and the "Galileo" space program, which enable Israeli industry and academia to integrate into Europe in the technological and business aspect.
MK Meir Shetrit, chairman of the Knesset's Science and Technology Committee, recently returned from the inter-parliamentary conference of the European R&D program "Eureka" held in Lisbon.
The conference was held as part of the "Eureka" program - the leading industrial R&D program in Europe and the largest of its kind in the world. This is an initiative that has been operating in Europe since 1985 and is currently partnered by almost all European countries (40 companies) together with the European Union Commission, with the aim of promoting joint R&D projects with the support of the national R&D programs in the participating countries, and determining R&D policies at the European level. Every year "Eureka" approves several hundred new R&D projects in the amount of about 1.5 billion euros.
The Speaker of the Parliament of Portugal, Jaime Gama hosted the conference, which dealt with the impact of the economic crisis on European industry and the development of technologies with industrial applications to solve environmental, water and energy problems.
Prof. Avigad Vanshek, Head of the Institutes for Desert Research at the Sde Boker Campus of Ben-Gurion University delivered the main scientific lecture at the conference. MK Shetrit pointed out that the choice of Prof. Wanshek as a keynote speaker at the conference illustrates the recognition of the excellence of Israeli science, and Israel's leadership position in the global fight against the desert phenomenon - the desert's takeover of ever-increasing areas.
Israel Shamai, the director of the industrial cooperation programs with Europe at Metimaf, who serves as the Israeli national representative at "Eureka", said that Israel stands out in "Eureka" in a special way due to the nature of the program, which is very suitable for Israeli industry and the R&D policy of the chief scientist , which encourages international cooperation. According to him, Israel was accepted as a full member of the "Eureka" program in 2000, and in recent years has become one of the 5 most active countries in the program. As of today, Israeli companies take part in over 10% of all projects carried out in the program. These projects are funded by the chief scientist at the Ministry of Science and Technology.
Dr. Ofer thanked MK Shetrit for the support of the Science and Technology Committee in the international cooperation activity in research and development and for his willingness to host the next inter-parliamentary conference of Eureka in the Knesset.
One response
When you read articles like this, the tremendous Israeli scientific ability becomes clear again and again.
The trouble is that at the same time there are also gloomy reflections regarding the gap with the level and quality of the state political leadership that is supposed to serve this scientific ability. What a shame.