Submit Applications: R&D Collaborations on Food and Nutrition for Israeli and US Researchers (Israel)

The researcher from an Israeli academic institution is required to add a developmental and applicable values agreed by the American researcher, whose work plan has been approved for funding by the American NIFA Foundation. (the American National Institute of Food and Agriculture) or to researchers who previously worked under the funding of the BARD Foundation and have reached a maturity stage of knowledge that may be of commercial interest to an Israeli company.

Purpose

• The purpose of the call for proposals:
  • Promoting joint research and development between Israel and the United States on food and nutrition issues, both for the purpose of improving the quality and health of the population and for the prevention of chronic diseases related to these issues, which constitute a central burden in both countries.
  • Strengthening small and medium-sized companies in the developing industry in the fields of food and nutrition, by accessing established academic knowledge originating from academia in the United States and Israel.

Areas

• Collaboration topics must deal with one or more of the areas listed below:
  • Food and nutrition improvement: Improving food quality and nutritional values, improving food safety, improving food composition by genetic means, educating the market for certain dietary habits, developing personalized foods for certain population groups (e.g., according to susceptibility, patients, and age), characterizing the links between nutrition and chronic diseases, developing innovative and nutritious raw materials for the food industry (e.g., proteins and sugar substitutes), improving nutritional supplements, or developing sources of new natural functional ingredients for food (e.g.: thickeners, stabilizers and paints).
  • Increasing the variety of food sources and food availability: innovative growing methods, increasing biodiversity of food sources, producing healthy food and growing it in an era of scarcity of resources (e.g., exploitation of agricultural inputs, energy and water), or reducing food losses of agricultural produce post-harvest.
  • Healthy consumption: personalized foods (e.g., microbiome, genetics, sensitivities/intolerances, etc.), development of systems for monitoring food quality and safety (e.g., technologies for maintaining quality in the post-production value chain, technology for detecting allergens in food), changing consumption habits or making healthy food attractive.

Target Audience

• Target audience for this call includes:
  • Technology Transfer Offices (TTO’s) applying on behalf of Israeli academic researchers, and Israeli corporations operating in the fields of food and nutrition.

Criteria

• Prerequisites:
  • Technological Infrastructures benefit program: Promoting Applied Research in Academia, will apply with the additional and cumulative prerequisites in which the applicant must meet the satisfaction of the Research Committee, including:
    • The application must include a lending corporation.
    • The program must be under the Collaboration Scope mentioned above of food and nutrition.
    • The BARD Foundation has confirmed that the American foreign research institution, mentioned in the applicant’s request, has been approved by the American National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) to add cooperation with the applicant as part of the implementation of the American foreign institution’s plan.
  • Technological Infrastructures benefit program: Knowledge Commercialization, will apply, to which two additional and cumulative prerequisites will be added, in which the applicant must meet the satisfaction of the Research Committee, and they are:
    • The program must be under the Collaboration Scope mentioned above of food and nutrition.
    • The BARD Foundation has confirmed that the American foreign research institution, mentioned in the applicant’s request, has been approved by the American National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) to add cooperation with the applicant as part of the implementation of the American foreign institution’s plan.

For more information, visit Israel Innovation Authority.