Deal Boosts Israel-U.S. Research On Materials Science

Cooperation between materials science researchers in Israel and the U.S. could be enhanced under a recent agreement between the National Science Foundation and the U.S.-Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF). BSF is an independent organization that promotes joint research between the two countries through an endowment. Materials science is just the most recent of many research areas that the organization supports. The new program allows Israeli scientists to get money from BSF to work with an NSF-funded colleague on materials research. The application process begins when a U.S. principal investigator submits a proposal to NSF, which goes through the agency’s normal merit review process. The researcher’s Israeli colleague then submits a parallel proposal to BSF. Although NSF is not providing any extra money for the U.S.-funded scientists, BSF is likely to fund any Israeli researcher whose U.S. colleague gets NSF support. The materials science subjects open for proposals include biomaterials, ceramics, photonic materials, and solid-state chemistry, among others.