The Israel-U.S. Binational Industrial Research and Development (BIRD) Foundation has approved $8.4 million in funding for nine new projects between U.S. and Israeli companies, including agrotech projects. In addition to the grants from BIRD, the projects will access private-sector funding, boosting the total value of all projects to $20 million.
The BIRD Foundation promotes collaborations between U.S. and Israeli companies in various technological sectors for joint product development. In addition to providing conditional grants of up to $1.5 million per project, the Foundation assists by working with companies to identify potential strategic partners and facilitate introductions.
The projects approved by the Board of Governors are in addition to over 1000 projects which the BIRD Foundation has approved for funding during its 45-year history. To date, BIRD’s total investment in joint projects is over $370 million, helping to generate direct and indirect sales of more than $10 billion.
The agrotech projects approved by the Board of Governors include:
- Tevel (Gedera, Israel) and Vinergy (Bakersfield, CA) will develop a clean-energy autonomous harvesting system.
- CASTOR Technologies (Tel Aviv, Israel) and Siemens Corporation Technology (Charlotte, NC) who will develop an automatic CO2 emission calculation to identify environmental benefits by using Additive Manufacturing.
Dr. Amiram Appelbaum, Chairman of the Israel Innovation Authority and co-Chair of BIRD’s Board of Governors, said: “We are pleased with the bilateral US and Israel support of technologically innovative projects that are tackling some of the most pressing global challenges including Climate-tech, Agritech, and Health Services.”
Dr. Eitan Yudilevich, the outgoing Executive Director of the BIRD Foundation, said: “This cycle demonstrated, once again, that there is great interest among U.S. and Israeli companies to collaborate on cutting-edge technologies to create new products and services, particularly in the field of agrotech.”
These projects aim to develop innovative solutions to tackle pressing global challenges, specifically in the field of agrotech. With the support of BIRD Foundation, these projects have the potential to bring new products and services to the market, and to make a positive impact on the agricultural industry.
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