BIRD Foundation - Israel-U.S. Binational Industrial R&D

22/10/2026

From 3D-printed orthopedic tools to early cancer detection and AI-based seed sorting, seven new U.S.-Israel R&D partnerships have been selected for $7.4 million in BIRD funding.

The projects span agtech, digital health, medical devices, quantum computing, space, and semiconductors, with combined BIRD funding and private-sector investment expected to reach $20 million.

Congratulations to the selected teams, whose partnerships bring together the distinct strengths of U.S. and Israeli experts to extend the reach and impact of their work.

The newly approved partnerships and their projects are:

🔹 Ibex Medical Analytics (Israel) and Proscia (Philadelphia, PA) will develop an AI-based precision oncology platform that automates biomarker scoring and integrates it into digital pathology workflows.

🔹 NovaLink Space (Israel) and Ciena Corporation (Hanover, MD) will develop a compact, terabit-class satellite laser communication terminal that integrates NovaLink's optical phased array (OPA) technology with Ciena's coherent transceiver.

🔹 Qarakal Quantum (Israel) and Quantum Elements (Westlake Village, CA) will develop a minimum viable product (MVP) that uses quantum computing to accurately map complex surface-catalysis reactions.

🔹 RAAAM Memory Technologies (Israel) and GlobalFoundries (Malta, NY) will develop and qualify RAAAM's GCRAM on-chip memory technology, which offers significant area and power reductions compared to SRAM technology, with no additional process steps or cost.

🔹 SpotitEarly (Israel) and Fox Chase Cancer Center (Philadelphia, PA) will develop, test, and validate an early cancer detection technology for multiple types of cancer that combines AI technology with dogs' highly sensitive sense of smell.

🔹 SeedX (Israel) and Illinois Foundation Seeds (Tolono, IL) will develop a high-precision seed-sorting solution for corn, sweet corn, and carrots based on SeedX's proprietary AI-based sorting technology.

🔹 CustoMED (Israel) and Myrava (Winston-Salem, NC) will develop an automated, in-hospital 3D-printing system for custom orthopedic tools, designed for use even in emergency surgeries.

We look forward to supporting these teams as they turn joint research into innovative technologies for global markets.

📰 Read the full announcement on PR Newswire: “BIRD Foundation Approves $7.4 Million for Seven New U.S.-Israel R&D Partnerships.”

Interested in BIRD funding for your own U.S.–Israel collaboration? Submit your Executive Summary by November 23, 2026. Visit the BIRD Foundation website and select BIRD General Program for details and application guidelines.

📷 Pictured, from left to right: Ophir Gore | Inon Elroy | Anat Ben Yosef | Limor Nakar-Vincent | Omer Carmel | Katherine Allen | Einat Magal | Alon Stopel | Anat Bujanover | Mike Molnar | Rotem Falash | Jaron Lotan | Tal Kelem | David Osborne | Wendy Nassmacher | Andrew Conn | Sean Suter | Jackson Stone

20/10/2026

Successful U.S.-Israel technology partnerships begin with understanding the value each side brings to the table.

In a recent EnergyCom webinar, BIRD’s Limor Nakar-Vincent, Deputy Executive Director of Business Development & BIRD Energy, joined Daniel Berkove, CEO of Pivot Industries, to discuss how U.S.-Israel collaborations turn joint R&D into commercial success.

With more than 20 years of experience at BIRD, Limor has seen what makes partnerships last. Her advice for companies exploring a potential partnership is simple: “Always talk about how you can benefit the other side.”

That means showing how your technology can solve a customer’s problem, generate revenue, or reduce costs.

This focus on mutual value is also at the heart of BIRD’s approach. Its experienced team and funding model help companies build strong partnerships, advance joint R&D, and share the risks of technology development. As Limor put it, “We’re here to bring value to both sides.”

Through BIRD Energy, which supports joint U.S.-Israel energy R&D, partners combine their expertise to develop innovative technologies and bring them closer to market.

Thank you to EnergyCom for hosting and Daniel Berkove for leading the conversation.

🎥 Watch the full discussion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8xdxHOdXQA

_________

Looking to build a U.S.-Israel technology partnership? BIRD’s General Program Call for Proposals is now open across technology sectors, including energy. The program offers up to $1.5 million in non-dilutive funding, covering up to 50% of eligible joint R&D costs.

🗓️ Executive Summary deadline: November 23, 2026
🔗 https://www.birdf.com/bird_programs/bird-general-program/

12/10/2026

Congratulations to Iris Shtein, CEO and co-founder of Mentaily, on being named to TheMarker’s 2026 “40 Under 40” list.

We’re proud to count Mentaily among BIRD’s grantees. This recognition reflects Iris’s leadership and the caliber of entrepreneurs behind the U.S.-Israel collaborations we support. Their vision and determination help turn innovation into practical solutions for challenges shared across borders, including the urgent need for accessible mental healthcare.

Iris co-founded Mentaily in response to the October 7 attacks, with a mission to help clinicians identify mental health needs sooner.

With support from BIRD, Mentaily is partnering with the Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine in Bethesda, Maryland, to test whether its AI-powered virtual clinician can help assess U.S. service members for PTSD. Researchers at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center are participating in the validation study.

In Israel, Mentaily has already reached a major milestone: Ministry of Health approval for its psychiatric triage system, which TheMarker describes as the country’s first approved AI-based decision-support tool in mental health.

What a well-deserved honor, Iris - and kudos to the Mentaily team behind this important work.

🔗 Read TheMarker's profile (in Hebrew): https://www.themarker.com/magazine/40under40/2026-09-24/ty-article-magazine/000001a0-591d-dd12-afac-d97face50002

🎥 Watch Iris discuss the BIRD-supported project in English: https://youtu.be/pkXgoznEfnY?si=dgvNUSKkmQlbRF3E&t=1591

25/09/2026

Looking for a U.S. or Israeli partner to take your technology to the next stage?

BIRD is now accepting proposals from U.S. and Israeli companies interested in building a joint R&D project with a clear path to commercialization.

Through the BIRD General Program, one U.S. company and one Israeli company can collaborate on a joint R&D project and receive up to $1.5 million in non-dilutive funding, covering as much as 50% of their joint R&D costs.

The program supports projects that combine meaningful technological innovation with strong commercial potential, across sectors ranging from advanced manufacturing, energy and cybersecurity to life sciences, semiconductors, software, water and more.

And BIRD is about more than funding. BIRD assists companies in building meaningful U.S.-Israel partnerships and supports them throughout the process - from identifying potential partners and developing the project concept to proposal submission and project implementation.

Have a technology that could benefit from a U.S.-Israel collaboration? Or are you looking for the right partner? Let’s talk.

🔗 Read more about BIRD's new Call for Proposals and the opportunities for U.S.-Israel collaboration in Calcalist: https://www.calcalist.co.il/article/bk000l5g9ml

For more information, contact the BIRD representative in your region:

🇮🇱 Israel
Dorin Gal | [email protected]

🇺🇸 United States
East Coast & Midwest: Andrea Yonah | [email protected]
West Coast: Anat Bujanover | [email protected]
South: Anat Ben Yosef | [email protected]

🗓️ Executive Summary deadline: November 23, 2026

🔗 Learn more: https://www.birdf.com/bird_programs/bird-general-program/

11/09/2026

As we welcome the Jewish new year, the BIRD Foundation wishes our colleagues and friends in Israel and the U.S. a Shana Tova.

This week’s biannual meeting of BIRD’s Board of Governors in Tel Aviv was a fitting way to close one year and look ahead to the next.

We’re excited about the new projects and partnerships that will take shape in the coming year - bringing together U.S. and Israeli companies to transform innovative ideas into shared commercial success.

Wishing everyone a peaceful, healthy and productive new year. שנה טובה!

10/09/2026

How does BIRD Energy turn collaborative R&D into lasting commercial partnerships?

Join BIRD’s Limor Nakar-Vincent and Pivot Industries CEO Daniel Berkove for a conversation about what makes cross-border collaboration succeed.

🗓️ Tuesday, September 15, 2026
⏰ 5:00 PM Israel | 10:00 AM ET

Register: https://energycom.org.il/webinar-u-s-israel-innovating-together-growing-together/

How does BIRD Energy turn US–Israeli R&D into lasting commercial partnerships? Daniel Berkove, CEO of Pivot Industries, sits down with Limor Nakar-Vincent, Deputy Executive Director for Business Development and BIRD Energy at the BIRD Foundation, to unpack how the program pairs Israeli and US comp...

10/09/2026

This week, under the lights of a packed amphitheater, the BIRD Foundation joined the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem in celebrating 250 years of American independence - and the deep ties between the United States and Israel.

For nearly 50 years, BIRD has helped turn that relationship into joint research, technological innovation and commercial success.

Tal Fischelovitch, who leads the BIRD-managed U.S.-Israel Energy Center, was pictured with U.S. and Israeli government officials closely involved in BIRD’s energy programs, including John Michele Department of Energy Attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem, representatives of Israel’s Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure, and the Israel Innovation Authority.

Together, these government partners collaborate with BIRD through both the U.S.-Israel Energy Center and BIRD Energy, supporting everything from long-term energy research to commercial technology development.

Thank you to the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem for bringing the U.S.-Israel community together for such a memorable evening.

📷 Group photo, from left: Dina Levant, Sharon Hatzor, John Michele, Tal Fischelovitch, Janet Shalom, Yifat Hadaya and Sima Nisim

06/09/2026

AI doesn’t run on thin air - it runs on electricity, and a lot of it.

As AI workloads scale, many organizations still can’t answer some basic questions: Where is all that energy going? What is it costing? And how much carbon is it generating?

A BIRD Energy-supported collaboration between Israel’s PowerPlug and New York-based Cirrus Nexus is working to close that gap.

The two companies are jointly developing a platform that brings energy and operational data from across the entire IT environment - employee endpoints, on-premise servers, data centers and cloud resources - into a single dashboard.

While most existing tools provide visibility into only one part of that environment, the new platform is designed to connect energy use, cost and emissions to digital workloads across the full IT landscape.

The goal is to give organizations a more complete basis for identifying waste, optimizing how and when computing resources are used, and reducing both costs and carbon emissions.

This is what BIRD Energy was created to make possible. Backed by U.S. and Israeli government partners, the program brings together complementary technologies and expertise to turn shared challenges - like AI’s growing energy footprint - into commercially viable solutions.

📖 Read more in Maariv (Hebrew): https://www.maariv.co.il/economy/tech/article-1358618

🔗 Learn more about BIRD funding opportunities: www.birdf.com

03/09/2026

With the current U.S.-Israel MOU set to expire in 2028, an important question is already on the horizon: what comes next?

In a new Jerusalem Post opinion piece, BIRD Executive Director Jaron Lotan argues that joint U.S.-Israel innovation should be a key component of the answer.

The next agreement presents an opportunity to build on the countries’ strong defense cooperation and augment it with a durable framework for joint civilian and dual-use technology development.

There is already a proven model.

Since 1977, BIRD has brought together U.S. and Israeli companies to develop technologies, share risk and bring products to market. Its record includes more than 1,200 collaborations, resulting in over $10 billion in direct and indirect sales.

Now imagine that model operating on a greater scale.

AI, quantum computing, biotechnology, energy, water, food security and advanced manufacturing will shape economic resilience and global competitiveness in the coming decade.

The opportunity is not to invent a new model. It is to give a proven one the capacity to do more.

🔗 Read the full piece: https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-905974

25/08/2026

REMINDER: Our Colorado–Israel life sciences webinar is coming up this Monday, August 31.

Companies interested in U.S.-Israel collaboration will learn:

➤ How BIRD can support joint R&D with up to $1.5 million in non-dilutive funding
➤ How to identify and connect with potential partners
➤ What past grantees have learned from working with BIRD

Presented with Colorado-Israel Chamber of Commerce (COIL) and Colorado BioScience Association, the webinar will highlight opportunities for Colorado-Israel collaboration, but life sciences companies and other stakeholders from across the U.S. and Israel are welcome to join.

🗓️ Monday, August 31
⏰ 9:00–10:00 a.m. MDT | 18:00–19:00 IDT

🔗 Register: https://www.birdf.com/event/webinar-bird-colorado-israel/

For questions about the webinar or BIRD funding, contact Anat Ben Yosef at [email protected].

Colorado and Israeli biotech companies: join the BIRD Foundation on August 31 for a webinar on funding opportunities for joint Colorado–Israel life sciences R&D.

Hosted in partnership with the Colorado-Israel Chamber of Commerce and the Colorado BioScience Association, the session will bring together BIRD leadership, Colorado ecosystem partners, and past grantees to discuss:

➤ Up to $1.5 million in non-dilutive funding for joint U.S.-Israel R&D projects
➤ Opportunities to connect with potential strategic partners
➤ Practical insights from past BIRD grantees

🗓️ Monday, August 31, 2026
⏰ 9:00–10:00 a.m. MDT | 18:00–19:00 IDT
🔗 Register: https://www.birdf.com/event/webinar-bird-colorado-israel/

We hope you’ll join us!

For questions about the webinar or BIRD funding, contact Anat Ben Yosef at [email protected].