Aid track to increase research collaborations between manufacturing companies and Universities

The Innovation Authority and the Ministry of Economy and Industry are launching an innovative aid track to increase research collaborations between manufacturing companies and academic institutions, to the extent of NIS 4 million
The track will allow manufacturing-oriented industrial companies to order studies from the leading research institutions in Israel in a way that will allow the local industry to incorporate groundbreaking knowledge into products and production processes, advance to the forefront of industrial innovation and take leading positions in global markets.
Israeli industry suffers from lower productivity than the average productivity in the industrial sectors in the OECD countries. These disparities make it difficult for the industry to compete in the world and to set a high standard of innovation in products and production processes, a standard required to maintain the relevance of the local industry in the global markets.
The innovative path to academia was created against the background of the growing need of local industrial companies to implement innovation in products and production processes, and from the understanding that academic research institutions in Israel are at the forefront of knowledge and possess the necessary infrastructure to allow local industry to break forward. Despite the great potential inherent in research collaboration between industrial companies and academic institutions, a recent inspection revealed that the potential is not reaching its full potential. The production-oriented companies in Israel rarely carry out such collaborations, with an emphasis on non-elite manufacturing industry companies, which find it difficult to bridge many gaps that hinder quality connections with academic research institutions.
In order to help the industry to bridge the barriers that hinder the implementation of collaborations with the academy, the dedicated call for the manufacturing industries is specifically aimed at industrial companies with production orientations in the traditional, mixed traditional and mixed elite technology industries, such as the food industries, metal, plastic, machinery and electrical equipment, chemistry, textiles and more . The track allows companies in these industries to commission research in a groundbreaking field that will allow them to make a leap forward in the researched field, based on cooperation with an academic institution and the exploitation of the knowledge and research infrastructures that exist in the academy. In this way, the industry will benefit from R&D capabilities that are at the forefront of global research, and at the same time the academy will benefit from a connection to the knowledge required in the industry and the commercialization potential of the academic activity.
Dr. Ron Malka, Director General of the Ministry of Economy and Industry: "Implementation of groundbreaking innovation in the local manufacturing industry is required to ensure the continued growth of the local industry and the improvement of productivity, while creating high-quality, high-paying jobs. Strengthening collaborations with academia holds great potential To upgrade the level of innovation in the production oriented industry"
Dror Bin, CEO of the Innovation Authority: "We see the utmost importance in encouraging the manufacturing industry to use research and development of technological innovation based on new knowledge that will be developed in academia in Israel and adapted to its needs, so that it will be able to compete in the world market with quality, price and an original value proposition."
Oz Katz, Director of Industries Administration at the Ministry of Economy and Industry: "In the past year, intensive work was carried out for the purpose of in-depth mapping of the research needs of the production-oriented industry. In the mapping, the barriers hindering collaborations with researchers from academia were identified, and in accordance with the findings, a dedicated outline was drawn up to encourage this type of research collaborations, which are expected to benefit industrial companies and research institutions"
A call published today invites manufacturing companies and academic researchers to submit proposals for joint research. The total number of proposals that will be selected for 2022 will be a total of NIS 4 million. Research proposals can be submitted until October 30, 2022. Full details at the link:
https://innovationisrael.org.