Unprecedented Inter-Governmental Collaboration: Over 100 Million Shekels Invested in 9 New Innovation Centers Nationwide 

Ministries of Economy and Industry, the Negev, Galilee, and National Resilience, Environmental Protection, Agriculture, and Regional Cooperation, join forces with the Israel Innovation Authority to boost nationwide entrepreneurship and high-tech employment in the periphery 

In an unprecedented collaborative effort, the Israel Innovation Authority announced today that several key government ministries have joined forces to invest over NIS 100 million in the establishment of nine new regional innovation centers across Israel. The Ministry of Economy and Industry, the Ministry of the Negev, Galilee, and National Resilience, the Ministry of Environmental Protection, the Ministry of Agriculture, and the Ministry for Regional Cooperation have united with the Israel Innovation Authority to launch the comprehensive initiative aimed at fostering entrepreneurship and promoting the high-tech industry in Israel’s periphery, from the north to the south of the country. 

As part of the program, a competitive process was undertaken to select nine locations, encompassing a range of Israeli and international corporations, investors, regional clusters, and associations. These entities will operate the innovation centers, with the overarching goal of encouraging the emergence and growth of new startups with strong regional ties, advancing high-tech employment in the selected areas. 

The hubs will focus on key areas within the high-tech sector, leveraging Israel’s immense global potential while harnessing the relative advantages of the respective regions. These areas include innovative technologies in Agri-tech, Foodtech, renewable energy, green construction, water technologies, Climate-tech, and Health-tech. 

The hubs will collaborate with local entities to stimulate economic growth in the selected regions, fostering synergy among various entities operating in the same area and maximizing existing assets. Each hub will receive an accumulated grant of up to NIS 15 million over a five-year period. 

The selected innovation centers will undertake initiatives such as technological entrepreneurship, acceleration of local projects, attraction of new employers in the high-tech sector, promotion of high-quality employment through practical training, internships, and more. Additionally, the centers will support the creation of a supportive environment for new ventures, collaborating with local players, including local farmers, companies, academia, research institutions, local authorities, existing industries, investors, and others. All these efforts are aimed at encouraging high-tech growth in the selected regions for the benefit of local residents, creating flagship companies and high-tech employment. 

The nine innovation hubs complement the three previously established hubs (NorthMed, Hasoub Labs, and Base Camp) in the Arab sector in 2022, in collaboration with the Israel Innovation Authority and the Ministry of Social Equality. 

Selected hubs: 

• Galileo Studio Ventures: Chosen to operate a new innovation center with an emphasis on AgriTech and FoodTech in the Eastern Galilee and Golan. Partners for the establishment of the center include the Innovation Association, the Migal Institute, and JVP. 
• SeaNovation Eilat: Selected to operate an innovation center in the Eilat-Eilot region, focusing on Biotechnology and Marine Agriculture. Partners for the establishment of the center include the Israel Innovation Institute, Aradum Maintenance and Management, Aradg, the Marine and Lakes Research Institute, and the Eilat Campus of Ben Gurion University through BGN Technologies. 
• Built Environment Innovation Center: Chosen to operate a new innovation center in the Western Galilee, with an emphasis on Green Construction Technologies and the Built Environment. Partners for the center include Impulse Partners, the Swiss Venture Capital Fund SHIBUMI, the Israeli Baran Engineering Group, and a Bahraini foundation. 
• Northern Climate Synergy: Selected to operate an innovation center in the Kinneret, Golan, and Emek region, focusing on AgriTech, water, climate, and Artificial Intelligence. Partners for the center include the Kinneret Innovation Center (KIC), KKL, the Shmier Research Institute, and the Innovalley Innovation Center in the Emek Hamaayanot. 
• Techlinic: Chosen to operate an innovation center in East Jerusalem, with an emphasis on Health Technologies. Partners for the center include Techlinic, the Scientific Subsidiary of Shaare Zedek Medical Center, Sheba ARC (Sheba Medical Center’s innovation center), and the Tkuva Risk Capital Foundation, in collaboration with Azrieli College of Engineering, SigmaLabs, and Hadassah Hospital. 
• DAROM Innovation Center: Selected to operate an innovation center in the Eastern Negev, with a focus on Renewable Energy Technologies and Advanced Industry. Partners for the center include INSIDE OUTSOURCING, Restart, the Israel Aviation Industry, Doral Hydrogen, and Sonol Israel. 
• Technological Center for Security and Resilience in the Western Negev: Chosen to operate a center in the Gaza border region and the Western Negev, focusing on National Security (Homeland Security) and Nutritional Resilience. Partners for the center include Southup Center, the Western Negev Cluster Association, the Sderot Foundation for Development, Or Movement, and Sapir College. 
• DesertTech and Climate Innovation Center: Selected to operate an innovation center in Be’er Sheva and the Negev and Arava region, to advance Climate Technologies and Desert Agriculture. Partners for the center include the Miraz Fund, the Israel Innovation Institute, Ingav Heating, and BGN Technologies, the commercialization company of Ben Gurion University, with Netivei Negev as a strategic partner. 
• INNOVEASTECH: Chosen to operate an innovation center in the Judea and Samaria region. Partners for the center include Ariel University, Ariel Scientific Knowledge Company, International Software Company TSG (EPR) with Formula Systems, and the Israeli Air Industry. 

Dror Bin, CEO of the Israel Innovation Authority: “Diversity in technology, in terms of industry, geography, and demographics, is a key component of the Israel Innovation Authority’s strategy to strengthen Israeli high-tech competitiveness against other innovation hubs worldwide. The centers selected in the national competitive process among dozens of excellent proposals, and in unprecedented cooperation with various government ministries, will enable the expansion of the entrepreneurship cycle and the employment of high-tech throughout the country and across all sectors, while demonstrating Israeli resilience and the ability to continue innovating, creating new growth engines for the Israeli economy. The Israel Innovation Authority, along with its partners, will continue to generate solutions routinely and through competitions to help entrepreneurs establish and grow breakthrough companies, paving the way for the new wave of innovation and growth in Israeli high-tech.” 

Minister of Innovation and Science, Ofir Akunis: “The significance of establishing innovation centers is particularly crucial at this time. Israel’s advantages in science and technology are harnessed to promote a better humanity, while our hostile enemies surround us, embracing the opposite. Innovation centers will spread across diverse regions throughout the country, from Kiryat Shemona through the Gaza border region to Eilat. They reflect the beautiful face of Israeli society as a whole, now reaching its ultimate pride and readiness for the new peaks that will come forth at the end of the war.” 

Minister of Agriculture, Avi Dichter: “The establishment of these innovation centers is part of the ministry’s strategy to promote local agriculture, strengthen it, renew it, and enhance its ability to efficiently produce food for the population sustainably and innovatively. In these days, where the importance of local food security is sharpening and taking on new meaning, the innovation centers gain significance, enabling the promotion of innovative solutions for food production, strengthening the symbiotic relationship between local farmers and entrepreneurial worlds, and providing innovative responses to the challenges of the field and the continued empowerment of innovation in this field in Israel.” 

Minister of Economy and Industry, Nir Barkat: “We welcome the establishment of the innovation centers, a joint initiative of the Israel Innovation Authority and other government ministries. The innovation centers play a significant role in the national growth plan according to the Porter model we lead, integrating into the activities of the Growth Administration established in the Ministry of Economy and Industry. Its goal is to strengthen business clusters in the relative advantages of Israel – Agro-FoodTech, Marine Biology, Desert-Tech, Energy and Climate, Security and Cyber, Biotech, Hi-Tech, and Advanced Industry. Israeli entrepreneurship, innovation, and research curiosity are things no one can take away from us, especially these days when there is a necessity to expand government investments in collaboration with the business sector to encourage growth and innovation.” 

Minister of Environmental Protection, Idit Silman: “The Ministry of Environmental Protection continues to support environmental innovation in Israel. The innovation centers we are establishing today, in collaboration with the Israel Innovation Authority and other partner ministries, will contribute to addressing global environmental challenges and promoting the Israeli hi-tech industry throughout the country, including in the geographic periphery of Israel. The DZARTEK Center, in which the ministry has been a partner from the beginning, will contribute to the Israeli effort in the global fight against the bee crisis, as well as the growth and prosperity of the southern regions of the country, which are currently on the front lines.” 

Minister for Regional Cooperation, David Amsalem: “The establishment and acceleration of the activity of the innovation centers are an additional expression of our commitment as a ministry and government to invest in economic growth engines in the periphery, which will assist in the recovery processes and strengthen the socio-economic resilience in the southern communities. We have positioned the development of the periphery as a central anchor for the promotion of the ministry’s activities in the region. In times of war, we are determined to strengthen the resilience of the periphery even more. This is our commitment to the residents of the south, and it is also a clear statement to our enemies: wherever they try to harm us – we will build, open, flourish, and strengthen. Am Yisrael Chai.” 

Minister of the Negev, Galilee, and National Resilience, Yitzhak Wasserlauf: “The national challenges facing us today, more than ever, require comprehensive answers, between ministries, holistic and most responsive to the needs of the field. The good news we announce today – nine new innovation centers with an investment of 100 million NIS – will provide an additional and vital layer of fertile ground for the development of advanced and productive industry nationwide. This is a key to economic acceleration, a key to unlocking the immense human capital that lies within our country, and a key to the continued prosperity of the State of Israel. I thank all our important partners for their involvement in the process – well done!”