Experts from India, Israel suggest expanding scope of industrial R&D, technological innovation fund

New Delhi [India], January 19 (ANI): Experts from India and Israel deliberated on widening the scope of India-Israel Industrial Research and Development (R&D) and Technological Innovation Fund (I4F) at its 8th Governing Body meeting.
They approved 3 joint R&D projects worth USD 5.5 million and suggested measures to create a broader India-Israel collaborative ecosystem as per the Ministry of Science and Technology press release today.
The discussions took place in virtual mode on 18th January 2022 in the presence of officials from the Department of Science & Technology (DST), Government of India, Israel Innovation Authority (IIA), GITA and various Industries partners.
Dr Amiram Appelbaum, Co-Chair, Israel and Chairman of the Board, IIA, said that despite the difficult times of the pandemic, it is critical to continue the efforts of collaboration.
"I4F is one of the examples of collaborations which we want to carry forward. We look forward to go through interesting applications of projects submitted in this programme," he said.
Further, the governing body ratified the minutes of the seventh governing board meeting, which was followed by approval to 3 joint Indo-Israel R&D projects with an overall budget of USD 5.4 million.
The projects were 'Centrally Monitored IoT Nanosensors for Molecular Diagnostics in Healthcare and Screening Applications', 'NoMoreMos- a mosquito control biological solution' and 'IoT enabled satellite communication for real-time collection of agriculture and environment data across India'.
Vishvajit Sahay Additional Secretary and Financial Adviser DST, S Gopalakrishnan Chairman, Axilor Ventures & Co-Founder, Infosys R. Ramanan Former Mission Director & Additional Secretary, Atal Innovation Mission, NITI Aayog, Government of India, Dror Bin, CEO, Israel Innovation Authority, Israel, S K Varshney Adviser & Head, International Cooperation (Bilateral) Division, Department of Science and Technology (DST) were among the members present in the meeting, according to the Ministry of Science and Technology press release.
India-Israel Industrial R&D and Technological Innovation Fund (I4F) fund is a cooperation between the DST, Government of India, and the Israel Innovation Authority, Government of Israel to promote, facilitate and support joint industrial R&D projects between companies from India and Israel to address the challenges in the agreed 'Focus Sectors'. (ANI)