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MIT and BGU Announce New Seed Fund

MIT and BGU Announce New Seed Fund

June 3, 2014

Press Releases

BEER-SHEVA, ISRAEL, June 3, 2014 – Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) signed an agreement on May 25 to create a new seed fund to finance joint research collaborations and student exchanges.

The MIT-Israel-Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Seed Fund is part of MISTI Global Seed Funds. MISTI will offer funds to MIT faculty and researchers to support early-stage international projects and research collaboration.

Many of the joint projects lead to publications, additional grant awards, and the development of valuable long-term relationships between international researchers and MIT faculty and students.

MIT-BGU Signing

BGU Dean of the Faculty of Engineering Sciences Prof. Joseph Kost, BGU Rector Prof. Zvi HaCohen, MIT-Israel Faculty Director Prof. Christine Ortiz signed the first MIT-Israel/BGU Seed Fund on May 25, 2014.

“We at BGU are excited and looking forward to tightening our collaboration with MIT faculty and students,” said Dean of the Faculty of Engineering Sciences Prof. Joseph Kost.  “I am sure the agreement we signed will facilitate greater collaborative research, graduate student exchanges and further funding from other sources for the benefit of both institutions.”

According to David Dolev, managing director of MIT-Israel and assistant director of MISTI, “We see this as another step in creating widespread, lasting relationships between the scientific communities at MIT and BGU, and hope to launch other MIT-Israel Seed Funds in specific areas of interest to both partners.”

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.

“In one 15-week program, select students from MIT come for the summer, go to universities, including BGU, and to commercial companies as well, such as Teva,” Kost says. “The students connect with faculty members doing work they’re interested in and spend the summer with them, for instance doing lab work. MIT’s purpose in this is to expose them to non-U.S. mentality.”

MIT’s Dean Ortiz and David Dolev together with Prof. John Lienhard and Prof. Nicholas Negroponte were in Israel last week as part of Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick’s Trade Mission to Israel: “Massachusetts-Israel Innovation Partnership Mission 2014.”

BGU was represented by Rector Prof. Zvi Hacohen and Prof. Joseph Kost. MIT was represented at the signing by MIT-Israel Faculty Director Prof. Christine Ortiz.

ABOUT AMERICANS FOR BEN-GURION UNIVERSITY

By supporting a world-class academic institution that not only nurtures the Negev, but also shares its expertise locally and globally, Americans for Ben-Gurion University engages a community of Americans who are committed to improving the world. David Ben-Gurion envisioned that Israel’s future would be forged in the Negev. The cutting-edge research carried out at Ben-Gurion University drives that vision by sustaining a desert Silicon Valley, with the “Stanford of the Negev” at its center. The Americans for Ben-Gurion University movement supports a 21st century unifying vision for Israel by rallying around BGU’s remarkable work and role as an apolitical beacon of light in the Negev desert.

About Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

Ben-Gurion University of the Negev embraces the endless potential we have as individuals and as a commonality to adapt and to thrive in changing environments. Inspired by our location in the desert, we aim to discover, to create, and to develop solutions to dynamic challenges, to pose questions that have yet to be asked, and to push beyond the boundaries of the commonly accepted and possible.

We are proud to be a central force for inclusion, diversity and innovation in Israel, and we strive to extend the Negev’s potential and our entrepreneurial spirit throughout the world. For example, the multi-disciplinary School for Sustainability and Climate Change at BGU leverages over 50 years of expertise on living and thriving in the desert into scalable solutions for people everywhere.

BGU at a glance:  

20,000 students | 800 senior faculty | 3 campuses | 6 faculties: humanities & social sciences, health sciences, engineering sciences, natural sciences, business & management, and desert research.

 

For all press inquiries, please contact:

James Fattal, J Cubed Communications

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