Israeli-US energy research to increase threefold

Israel and the US have agreed to deepen their cooperation on and investment in joint energy research and development.

Israel’s Ministry of Energy and the US Department of Energy have agreed to deepen their cooperation on research and development by tripling their budget threefold.

The governments will jointly invest an additional $8 million in energy research and development, in addition to the $4 million which has already been invested through the BIRD Energy Fund since 2009.

BIRD is an acronym for Israel-US Binational Industrial Research and Development. The BIRD Foundation’s mission is to stimulate, promote and support industrial R&D of mutual benefit to the US and Israel.

BIRD’s scope extends to agriculture, communications, life sciences, electronics, electro-optics, software, homeland security, renewable and alternative energy and other sectors of the hi-tech industry. BIRD supports approximately 20 projects annually.

Following the US Senate approval of the budget, the governments through their respective departments will publish a call for proposals for the establishment of a joint research and development center in the field of energy, which will include partners from both the business-technological sphere and the academic sphere in both countries.

“This is a significant strengthening of the energy cooperation between the countries,” a spokesperson for Israel’s Ministry of Energy stated.

The joint investment is a continuation of the implementation agreement signed by Israel’s Minister of National Infrastructure, Energy and Water Resources, Dr. Yuval Steinitz, and former US Secretary of Energy, Ernest Moniz, in 2016. As part of this agreement, the fields of cooperation between the two countries have been expanded in the energy sector, including fuels and substitutes, smart grids, desalination and water treatment and physical and cyber protection of energy and water infrastructure facilities.

By: World Israel News Staff