BIRD, BSF & BARD
HISTORY OF BIRD-UNITED STATES-ISRAEL BINATIONAL
RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT FOUNDATION:
The Israel-United States Binational Industrial
Research and Development (BIRD) Foundation was established in 1977 by the United States and Israel governments to promote
mutually beneficial industrial research and development (R&D). Each BIRD
project involves a partnership between a U.S. and an Israeli company with up to
50 percent of the funding being supplied by BIRD and at least 50 percent by the
partnership. The source of the funding is an endowment which was provided
equally by the two governments. The endowment is $110 million. In addition,
since 2009, BIRD receives annual funding from both governments for the BIRD Energy program. Since inception, BIRD has
approved more than 900 projects, provided more than $300M in grants (~$500M
adjusted to inflation). Successful BIRD projects have yielded an estimated $10B
in sales.
The BIRD Foundation
is considered a very successful model of binational R&D collaboration.
Early History
The BIRD Foundation
was formally established on May 18, 1977 with an endowment of $60 million; $30
million from each country to support and promote joint non-defense industrial
research and development for mutual benefit. In 1984, the endowment was increased
to $110 million.
The genesis of the
BIRD Foundation dates back to July 1974, when the governments of the United
States and Israel established a joint Committee for Investment and Trade,
staffed by representatives of the two governments. Its task was to find ways to
promote closer economic ties between the two nations, with discussions being
held throughout 1975 and early 1976. The initial agreement to establish the
Foundation was signed by U.S. Secretary of the Treasury William Simon and by
Israel Finance Minister Yehoshua Rabinowitz, on March 3, 1976.
In February 1975 a
private sector group had been formed to promote closer links between U.S. and
Israeli scientific and technological enterprises. This group, composed of
leading research and development executives from both U.S. and Israeli
industry, was instrumental in providing advice and support to the Joint
Committee during negotiations for the establishment of the Foundation. As
discussions continued between the two governments, another significant private
sector initiative was taking place. The Committee for the Economic Growth of
Israel (CEG-I) was formed during March 1976, as an autonomous, voluntary
organization of American and Israeli business people who joined forces to
promote exports and investment in Israel.
In late April 1977,
the U.S. Congress passed the legislation providing the funding for the
Israel-U.S. Binational Industrial Research and Development Foundation. This was
signed into law by President Carter on May 4, 1977. At the same time the
Knesset, Israel's parliament, authorized the funding of the Israeli portion of
the Foundation's endowment.
The Foundation was
formally established in a ceremony in Washington DC on May 18, 1977, with the
exchange of letters between Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Bergsten and
Ambbassador Dinitz.
According to the BIRD website:
The BIRD
Foundation was established by the U.S. and Israeli governments in 1977 to
generate mutually beneficial cooperation between U.S. and Israeli companies,
including start-ups and established organizations. BIRD provides both
matchmaking support between U.S. and Israeli companies, as well as funding
covering up to 50 percent of project development costs, up to $1M per project.
BIRD takes no equity in the companies.
BIRD’s
scope extends to Agriculture, Communications, Construction Technologies,
Electronics, Electro-optics, Life Sciences, Software, Homeland Security,
Renewable and Alternative Energy and other technology sectors.
HISTORY OF BFS-UNITED STATES -ISRAEL BINATIONAL
SCIENCE FOUNDATION
The United States-Israel Binational Science Foundation
(BSF) is a grant-awarding
institution that promotes collaborative
research in a wide range of basic and applied scientific
disciplines, established in 1972 by an agreement between the governments of the
United States and Israel. Numerous scientists participating in BSF programs
have won prestigious awards such as the Nobel, Lasker
and Wolf prizes.[1] The Foundation grant recipients
include 43 Nobel Prize laureates, 19 winners of the Lasker-DeBakey Clinical
Medical Research Award, and 38 recipients of the Wolf Prize.[2][3]
The BSF's income is
derived from interest on an endowment of $100
million which was established in equal parts by the United States and Israeli
governments. The organization is governed by a Board of Governors
consisting of five American and five Israeli members, appointed by their
respective governments. The BSF's base of operations is in Jerusalem, Israel.
Grants are awarded
on a competitive, peer-reviewed
basis, a process juried
by scientists from the United
States, Israel and
around the world. To be eligible for consideration, grant requests must be of
outstanding scientific quality and demonstrate substantive collaboration
between American and Israeli principal investigators. They must be for peaceful
purposes and conducted under the aegis of not-for-profit
institutions such as universities, research institutes
and governmental bodies.
According to the BSF Website:
The U.S.-Israel
Binational Science Foundation (BSF) promotes scientific relations between the
U.S. and Israel by supporting collaborative research projects in a wide
area of basic and applied scientific fields, for peaceful and non-profit
purposes.
Founded in 1972 by
an agreement between the United States and Israel, the BSF is an independent
body, directed by a board
of governors consisting of five American and five Israeli members. Its base
of operation is in Israel.
HISTORY OF BARD - UNITED STATES - ISRAEL AGRICULTURE
RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT
Agricultural research in Israel is based on
close cooperation and interaction between scientists, consultants, farmers and
agriculture-related industries. Israel's semi-arid to arid climate and shortage
of high quality water are major constraints facing Israeli agriculture. Through
extensive greenhouses production, vegetables, fruits and flowers are grown for
export to the European markets during the winter off-season. [1]
The Agricultural
Experiment Station established in 1921 developed into the Agricultural Research
Organization (ARO), widely known as the Volcani
Institute. The Faculty of Agriculture of the Hebrew
University of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv University,
Bar Ilan University,
Ben
Gurion University of the Negev and the Weizmann
Institute of Science also engage in agricultural research.
History
Dry farming on a
subsistence level was practiced in the Land of Israel for over
2000 years. The forerunners of agricultural research in Palestine were the
teachers and instructors of the Mikveh Israel
agricultural school, established in 1870. The pioneers of many of the early
farming settlements cultivated experimental plots supervised by an agronomist.[2] Arriving in the country with little
or no previous agricultural experience, this kind of experimentation was vital
for the development of such crops as grapes, citrus and almonds. Arab
agriculture revolved primarily around dry farming, with barley, chickpeas,
sesame and olives predominating. The few German Templer villages were based on
relatively large farms of dry farming of wheat and barley.[3]
In 1906, Jewish
agronomist Aaron
Aaronsohn discovered wild
emmer (Triticum dicoccoides),
believed to be "the mother of the wheat.[4]
After the Balfour
declaration by Great Britain in 1917 and the award of the mandate to
Palestine by the League of Nations to Britain,
Their mission was to
conduct research leading to small farms with intensive agriculture,
specializing in mixed farming of fruit trees, cattle, chicken, vegetables and
cereals.[citation needed] The research station, headed by I.
Elazari-Volcani and located in Rehovot, was the first scientific institute in
Palestine. It had departments for crop sciences, fruit and citrus, soil and
irrigation, entomology and plant pathology, post-harvest, food technology and
farm economics.[citation needed] The station had an extension department
and results of its research were quickly passed on to the farmers. Yields of
grain under dryland conditions increased from 600 to 5000 kg per hectare;
and breeding and selection of cattle increased milk production from
800–1500 kg to 5000 kg/cow/year (1950) {now more than
11.000 kg/cow/year- 2005}.[citation needed] Research in storage of citrus fruit
reduced spoilage during shipping to Europe due to fungal rots from 30% to 2-3%.[citation needed]
In 1942 the Hebrew
University in Jerusalem decided to establish the Institute for Agricultural
Studies, which later developed into the Faculty of Agricultural, Food and
Environmental Quality Sciences[citation needed]. In the beginning the faculty staff came
mainly from the Agricultural Experiment Station and students worked on their
theses in the laboratories of the Station[citation needed].Michael Evenari
(1904-1989, born as Walter Schwarz) was among the early pioneers.[5] The British government also
established a small agricultural research department with several stations in
both Arab and Jewish areas.[citation needed] After 1948, with the establishment of the
State of Israel, the two research stations were merged into the Agricultural
Research Station within the Ministry of Agriculture. However, the extension and
advisory service, previously part of the research station, now became an
independent branch within the Ministry.[citation needed]
In 1960 an attempt
was made to merge the Agricultural Research Station with the Faculty of
Agriculture of the Hebrew University, to form the "National and University
Institute of Agriculture." The idea was based on the US model of the Land Grant Colleges).[citation needed] This attempt failed, mainly because the
basic working conditions were not equalized before the merger. Nevertheless, a
close cooperation exists between the two institutions. The senior researchers
of the Agricultural Research Station serve on the teaching staff of the Faculty
and students from the Faculty do their research for M.Sc. and Ph.D. theses at
the Research Station.[citation needed]
With the growth of
the various disciplines in the Agricultural Research Station and the
establishment of regional research stations, the organizational structure has
changed over time.[citation needed] The Agricultural Research Organization
(ARO) was established in 1971, incorporating all agricultural research within
the Ministry of Agriculture.[citation needed]
Agricultural Research Organization (ARO)
The job of the ARO
is to help the development of the Israeli agriculture by an efficient use of
the limited water resources, development of crops for export markets, ensuring
a decent income for the farming community, developing and adapting crops and technologies
for newly settled regions without polluting the environment. Within the ARO are
six institutes, two commodity (Plant and Animal Sciences) and four discipline
oriented institutes (Plant Protection, Soil, Water and Environmental Sciences,
Technology & Storage of Agricultural Products and Agricultural
Engineering). The ARO has two additional research centers – Gilat, in southern Israel and
Neve Ya'ar in the north.
Within the six
institutes the various scientific departments[6] cover all agricultural disciplines
except veterinary sciences. In addition to the Institutes the ARO maintains a
computer unit, Genomics and Bio-informatics section, technology transfer
(engaged in business related activities), international activities, youth
activity units and a library.
The Veterinary
Institute of the Veterinary Services of the Ministry of Agriculture is also
located on the central campus of the ARO.
Public-funded research
The present main
objectives of the public funded research are: Supply of fresh food products all
the year around at reasonable prices; increasing exports of agricultural
products; strengthening the farming community at the periphery of the country;
increasing production and income of farmers; efficient use of the limited water
resources and precision agriculture. These goals require development of new
products and cultivars, improvement of food quality and safety, functional
food, integrated pest management (IPM), precision agriculture and farming
efficiency, with agricultural technologies friendly to the environment.
The fund of the
Chief Scientist is open to scientists from all institutions – ARO,
universities, regional research organizations, extension specialists and
farmers.
In addition to the
Chief Scientist’s fund the various commodity branches, as vegetables, flowers,
fruits, dairy cattle etc. also allocate research funding of direct interest to
them. The Minister of Agriculture, upon recommendation of the Chief Scientist,
appoints the committee members for research in each commodity branch. In
general a third of the members come from the scientific community, a third from
the extension service and a third are farmers. The proposals submitted to the
commodity branches also undergo the scientific evaluation process.
A substantial source
of funding, mainly for more basic research, comes from bi-national funds. The
leading one is The United States - Israel Binational Agricultural Research and
Development Fund (BARD). BARD is a competitive funding program for mutually beneficial,
mission-oriented, strategic and applied research of agricultural problems,
jointly conducted by American and Israeli scientists. Since 1979, BARD has
funded over 870 research projects, with awards of about $9.5 million annually
for new research projects. Most of these are of three years duration, the
average award being $300,00. Budgets are distributed about equally between the
two countries. Proposals are evaluated both in the US by the Agricultural
Research Service (ARS) and in Israel by the Scientific Evaluation Committees
(SEC), based on expert reviewers from different countries. The recommendations
from ARS and SEC are brought before a Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) for
final recommendations to the Board of BARD. Among the research areas funded
were: Alleviating Heat Stress in Dairy Cattle, Breeding for Heat Tolerant Wheat
Varieties, Improving Wheat-Seed Proteins by Molecular Approaches, Algal Culture
and Improving Cut Flower Quality to name only a few where significant results
were obtained (BARD, 20 year external review).[7] The success of BARD led to the
establishment of additional bi-national funds as the Joint Dutch-Israeli
Agricultural Science and Technology Program, a bi-national Program with
Queensland (Australia) and Canada. The latter are all on a much lower funding
level than BARD. In addition funding is also obtained from the EU, The US –
Israel Bi-national Science Foundation (BSF) and others.
Universities
The Faculty of
Agriculture, Food and Environmental Quality Sciences of the Hebrew University
in Rehovot is a major partner in the conduct of agricultural research. In the
Faculty, which includes Agricultural economics and management, a School of
nutritional sciences and hotel, food and tourism management are about 90
tenured scientific staff. The major scientific disciplines are: Agricultural
Botany; Field Crops, Vegetables and Genetics; and Horticulture; Biochemistry,
Food Science and Nutrition; Entomology and Plant pathology; Soil and water
sciences; Animal sciences; Veterinary medicine and Agricultural economics and
management.[8] Additional research is carried out
at Bar-Ilan
University, Tel
Aviv University, the Weizmann
Institute of Science, and Ben-Gurion
University of the Negev, whose Jacob
Blaustein Institute specializes in arid-zone
agriculture.
Regional research centers
Several regional
research centers are operating, the major ones being the Northern R&D,
Southern R&D and the Arava valley R&D. They are partially funded by the
Ministry of Agriculture, the Jewish Agency and Jewish National Fund.
Researchers from the ARO, the Faculty of Agriculture, Ben Gurion University and
others are actively involved in research projects carried out within the
Regional R&D canters. A senior researcher from the ARO generally acts as
the scientific director in each regional center, and an ARO scientist
coordinates all regional research. Their main goal is to direct the
agricultural branches in the region into profitable channels by improving
existing crops and developing new technologies and crops. Applying and
transferring techniques developed by their R & D and other research
institutes by means of model farms and an active extension service. Increasing
efficiency in use of fresh and treated water; and improving the general
professional level of local farmers. In the Arava valley, for example, studies
are conducted on new varieties of melons, tomatoes, peppers, fresh herbs,
strawberries, dates, flowers, flower-seed production and harvesting,
aquaculture, livestock, fodder crops, and jojoba beans, a year-round cash crop
used in the production of cosmetics and lubricants.
Achievements
The ARO and its
forerunner, the Agricultural Research Station, have helped to turn Israel's
“mixed farming” system into a highly industrialized enterprise focused on
export to Europe. Serious water shortages have led to the use of low quality
and recycled water. Some 44% of the water used for agriculture comes from
recycled water without lowering quality of the produce.
Exports to Europe
include fruits (citrus, avocado, grapes), vegetables (sweet peppers, tomatoes,
potato, melons, sweet potato), ornamentals (cut flowers, potted plants,
propagation material) and herbs. In 1997, agricultural export (fresh and
processed) reached over $1.329 billion - approximately 6.4% of the country's
total exports (Source: Central Bureau of Statistics). This has necessitated an
ongoing search for new products, niches in seasons and better storage
technologies. Major achievements included an increase in productivity of fruit,
vegetable and field crops with a reduced input of chemical fertilizers and
pesticides. Efficiency in dairy farming has increased milk production to one of
the highest in the world: over 10,200 litre/cow/year.[9]
Awards
In 2010, Jonathan Gressel of
the Weizmann Institute received the Israel Prize for
agricultural research. The prize committee chose Gressel, who is
internationally known for his work in plant biotechnology, for breakthrough
research in molecular structures that has major implications for the
development of weed killers.[10] The Israel Prize for Agriculture
was previously awarded to about 10 different scientists mainly from the
Agricultural Research Organization (previously the Agricultural Exxperiment
Station) and the Faculty of Agriculture of the Hebrew University. In 2012,
Daniel Hillel received the World Food Prize for
his pioneering work in micro-irrigation techniques.[11]
According to the BARD Website:
BARD is a
competitive funding program for mutually beneficial, mission-oriented,
strategic and applied research of agricultural problems, jointly conducted by
American and Israeli scientists.
The United
States-Israel Binational Agricultural Research and Development Fund (BARD) is a
competitive funding program for mission-oriented, strategic and applied
research of mutual-interest agricultural problems, conducted jointly by
American and Israeli scientists. This cooperative research entails active
collaboration between Israeli and Americans research institutes and has led to
significant breakthroughs in advancing agricultural technologies to deal with
problems faced in the field.
BARD was created in
1978 with initial contributions of $40 million by both the United States
and Israel. The
endowment fund was then augmented in 1984 by another $15 million from each
country. In 1994, an agreement was reached that Israel would match any U.S.
suplement to the fund by the amount of $2.5 million annually. Since 1998,
though, this annual supplement has been substantially reduced.
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