The National Council for Civilian Research and Development, which operates under the National Council for Research and Development Law, is renewing its activity, with the appointment of thirteen new members. Last week, the government accepted the proposal of Minister of Science and Technology Orit Farkash-Hacohen, and appointed the new members to the council. Each member is appointed for four years, but in fact, in the last five years, no new members were appointed although a new chairperson, former Technion - Israel Institute of Technology president Prof. Peretz Lavie, was appointed in November 2020.
The council is meant to serve as the government's strategic thinking arm. Its task is to map the needs of research and development activity in Israel and to identify its strengths and weaknesses. It makes recommendations on national policy on research and development, and carries out surveys of the state of science and research in Israel with a view to achieving national goals. It deals with government research and development, research and development in research institutes, space, cyber, life sciences, and so on.
The new members of the council are Prof. Joseph Kost, professor of Biomedical Engineering and the Dean of the Faculty of Engineering Sciences at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, and a member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities; Prof. Avinoam Zadok of the Faculty of Engineering at Bar-Ilan University; Prof. Avi Schroeder of the Chemical Engineering Faculty at the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology; Prof. Liat Ayalon of the School of Social Work at Bar-Ilan University; Prof. Karen Avraham of the Department of Human Molecular Genetics & Biochemistry and Vice Dean for Preclinical Affairs in the Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University; Imad Younis, president of neuroscience technology company Alpha Omega Engineering Ltd.; Arik Kleinstein, co-founder and managing partner of venture capital firm Glilot Capital Partners; Aharon Aharon, former CEO of the Israel Innovation Authority; Dr. Ittai Gavrieli, a senior researcher at the Geological Survey of Israel; Prof. Mina Teicher, professor emerita of mathematics at Bar-Ilan University and former chief scientist at the Ministry of Science and Technology; Prof. Dani Shtienberg, a researcher in plant protection, plant pathology and weed research at the Agricultural Research Organization (Volcani Insititute); Prof. Dan Peled, formerly of the Faculty of Economics at the University of Haifa; and Eytan Eshel, vice president of EW and SIGINT at Elbit Systems and formerly head of the Directorate of Defense Research & Development at the Ministry of Defense.
"The members of this important council, who represent the spearhead of the high-tech industry and academic research, will help in formulating recommendations of the future areas of research that will change the world, and will receive the status of national priority and benefit from government support," Farkash-Hacohen said. "The assignment of national priority in the past to the automotive industry, digital health, and cybersecurity has turned Israel into a global power in these fields, with high numbers of companies working in them," she added.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on July 12, 2021
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