A call was published for the establishment of about ten additional centers of excellence

Minister of Education and Chairman of the Legislative Council Gideon Sa'ar: "After years of Israel leading the export of brains to the best universities and research institutes in the world, we are changing direction and returning excellence to Israel. In the first phase of the establishment of the four centers of excellence, we returned about 40 leading researchers to Israel, and at the current phase many dozens more researchers are expected to return" 

Phase II of the Centers of Excellence program has begun. The steering committee of the program, which is part of the national initiative "Restoring Minds", issued a call for the establishment of about ten additional centers of excellence that are to be established in XNUMX.
At this stage, 18 topics were selected, representing a wide range of research areas, from which the ten centers will be established. The calling voice was distributed to groups of researchers in Israel and around the world to submit proposals for the establishment of the centers on the various topics. The next ten centers will be established as associations of researchers, regardless of their institutional affiliation, and each will include about ten researchers. It should be noted that in the way the subjects were selected at this stage, the lessons of the first stage, which served as a "pilot", were applied.
The areas of the following centers
The program's steering committee, headed by PhD member Prof. Shimon Yankelevich, formulated the list of topics for the establishment of the following ten centers, after examining all the proposals submitted by over 1,200 Israeli researchers from Israel and abroad.
To this end, four teams were established in the following fields: life sciences and medicine, exact sciences and engineering, humanities and arts and social sciences, education, law and business administration. Each team examined the proposals received in its field (including multidisciplinary proposals) and selected a list of topics according to criteria of compatibility with the program's goals. The proposed topics were chosen after consultation with members of the program's international scientific advisory committee, which consists of eleven leading scientists and Nobel Prize candidates.
Later, based on the evaluation of the proposals, the groups that will establish the new centers of excellence will be chosen. In this cycle, the establishment of about 10 centers will be approved, while providing adequate representation for each field.

The operation model of the centers in phase B
In the design of phase two of the program, lessons from phase one - the "pilot phase" - in which the first four centers were established, will be applied. In order to remove as much as possible limitations in the selection of the composition of researchers, the new centers will allow associations of leading researchers in a defined research field, regardless of their institutional affiliation. Also, in order for the research in the centers to be focused and allow real synergy between the researchers, the number of researchers in each center will be more limited, and will be adapted to the type of research in the center (experimental or theoretical). All this with the aim of ensuring the encouragement of excellence while maintaining a real competitive procedure.
The calling voice was distributed to Israeli researchers in all institutions of higher education in Israel, and at the same time to thousands of Israeli researchers around the world. The preliminary applications will be submitted through the National Science Foundation website, until December 1, 2011 and in accordance with the detailed submission guidelines that will be published on the foundation's website (www.isf.org.il). Also, the evaluation and judging process will be carried out by the fund. Submitters of preliminary applications, which will be approved, will be invited to submit full applications by March 1, 2012, in accordance with the comments and individual instructions that will be given to them later by the steering committee.
Below is the list of the 18 topics chosen:
Humanities and Arts; Social sciences, education, law and business administration:
1. The Center for the Study of Jewish Culture in the Modern Era
Center for the Study of Modern Jewish Culture
2. Jews, Christians, Muslims: Meetings of religion, society and culture between the Abrahamic religions
Jews, Christians, Muslims: Social and Cultural Encounters of the Abrahamic Religions
3. Language, language acquisition and discourse in a multilingual society
Language, Language Acquisition, and Discourse in a Multilingual Society
4. The Center for Multidisciplinary Research of the Holocaust and Genocide
Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of the Holocaust and Genocide
5. Education and the new information society
Education and the New Information Society
6. Empirical theorem
Empirical Legal Studies
7. The child's development and well-being
Child Development and Welfare
8. The Center for Mass Trauma Research
Mass Trauma Research Center
exact sciences and engineering; Life sciences and medicine:
9. The fundamental laws of nature and the structure of the universe - the study of the physics of the smallest and largest length scales
Basic Laws of Nature and the Structure of the Universe: probing the smallest and largest length scales
10. Security of information systems
Information Systems Security
11. Light and matter - applications and development of new light sources in a wide range of the electromagnetic spectrum for basic and technological research
Light and Matter - Applications and Development of Novel Light Sources in a Broad Range of the Electromagnetic Spectrum for Basic and Technological Research
12. Advanced materials - from atomic and molecular building blocks to systems of clusters of molecules
Advanced Materials - from atomic and molecular building blocks to many molecule systems
13. Chromatin and RNA - from epigenetics to post-transcriptional control
Chromatin and RNA – from epigenetics to post-transcriptional regulation
14. Mechanisms of action and innovative substances for combating infectious diseases
Mechanisms of Action and Novel Treatment Approaches for Infectious Diseases
15. Plant adaptation to the changing environment - multi-system molecular approaches
Plant Adaptation to a Changing Environment: a multidisciplinary molecular approach
16. Model systems for disease research - from development to multidisciplinary discoveries
Disease Model Systems - from development to multi-disciplinary applications
17. Biophysics and medical technologies - from principles to applications
Bio-physics and Medical Technologies - from principles to applications
18. Ecology and sustainability sciences at sea and on land
Ecology and Sustainability in Land and Sea

Centers of Excellence initiative - background
The initiative of the Centers of Excellence (I-CORE: Israeli Centers of Research Excellence) was formulated as part of the multi-year plan for the higher education system, and was presented to the government by the Minister of Education and Chairman of the Legislative Council Gideon Sa'ar and Chairman of the Faculty of Research Prof. Manuel Trachtenberg at its meeting On March 14, 2010.
The plan includes the gradual establishment of up to 30 centers of excellence over the next five 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.
As part of phase one of the program, three months ago the winners were chosen to establish the first four centers of excellence in the following areas:
1. Systemic approaches to the study of the molecular basis of diseases in humans: from genomic research to personalized therapy;
The establishment of this center was won by a group led by Prof. Haim Sider from the Hebrew University. The group includes 19 researchers from the Hebrew University, Tel Aviv University, Bar Ilan University, Sheba Medical Center and Hadassah Medical Center. In its first year, the center is expected to receive at least four more new researchers returning to Israel from the Broad Institute in Massachusetts, the Harvard Medical School and the Children's Hospital in Boston. The center will deal with genetic regulation research in complex human diseases.
2. Advanced research of cognitive processes;
The establishment of this center was won by a group led by Prof. Yadin Dodai from the Weizmann Institute. The group includes 24 veteran researchers from the Weizmann Institute of Science, Bar-Ilan University, Tel Aviv 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, and Israel General Hospital. Massachusetts and from Stanford University. The center will deal with the research of reconstructive intelligence: from the perceived to the remembered and back.
3. Topics at the forefront of computer science;
The establishment of this center was won by a group led by Prof. Yishai Mansour from Tel Aviv University. 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.
4. Sources of renewable, alternative and sustainable energies;
The creation of this center was won by a group led by Prof. Gideon Gerder from the Technion. The group includes 27 veteran researchers from the Technion, the Weizmann Institute of Science and Ben Gurion University. Already in its first year, the center will receive at least three more new researchers returning from Harvard, the University of Michigan and the University of Strasbourg. The center will be an Israeli consortium for solar fuels.
The first centers are expected to start operating in 2011 (October XNUMX). Over the next few years, dozens of new researchers who will return from the best universities and institutes in the world are expected to be absorbed into these centers.
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 personal absorption grant for research equipment and the establishment of a laboratory.
The program is coordinated by a steering committee consisting of 11 members representing 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 11 leading researchers in the world in the various fields, including several Nobel Prize winners.