BE’ER SHEVA, Israel (Press Release) – In what is called the MIT-Israel-BGU Seed Fund, the two universities recently approved five joint research proposals for funding, supporting new collaborations between faculty and research scientists at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
BGU and MIT signed the agreement last May to create the MIT-BGU Seed Fund, which promotes and supports early-stage collaborations. It is the first seed fund that MIT has launched in Israel through its MIT International Science and Technology (MISTI) Initiative.
The initial five collaborative projects are:
1. Self-Sustained Agriculture Based on Marginal Water — Professor Jack Gilron (BGU), Dr. Naftali Lazarovitch (BGU), Professor David Faiman (BGU) and Professor Eilon Adar (BGU), Professor John Lienhard (MIT), Associate Professor Amos Winter (MIT)
2. Improving the Delivery of Treatments in Spinal Cord Injury Using Ultrasound – Prof. Joseph (Yosi) Kost (BGU), Professor Robert Langer (MIT), Timothy O’Shea (MIT)
3. Identification of Epigenetic Quantitative Trait Loci Associated with Tomato Seed Germination — Associate Professor Aaron Fait (BGU) and Associate Professor Mary Gehring (MIT)
4. Guiding Students’ Learning Using On-line Collaborative Annotation Tools
— Dr. Yakov Gal (BGU) and Professor David Karger (MIT)
5. Channel Photocurrent Spectroscopy – Characterization Tool for Heterostructure Transistors — Associate Professor Ilan Shalish (BGU) and Professor Jesus A. del Alamo (MIT)
“We’re very excited about these early stage BGU-MIT collaborations that focus on our strengths in medical and environmental research,” says Doron Krakow, executive vice president, American Associates, Ben Gurion University of the Negev. “We look forward to promising results from this research and expanding the relationship between our two world-class universities.”
The MISTI (MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives) Global Seed Funds grant program promotes and supports early-stage collaborations between MIT researchers and their counterparts around the globe. Many of the joint projects they fund lead to additional grant awards and the development of valuable long-term relationships between international researchers and MIT faculty and students.
From its inception in 2005, the MISTI-MIT Israel program has recruited, selected and placed outstanding students in unique Israel internship opportunities. In total, 40 MIT students from around the United States and dozens of other countries have had internships at BGU.
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Preceding provided by Ben-Gurion University of the Negev