Program Description

The purpose of the call for proposals:

1. Promoting joint research and development between Israel and the United States on food and nutrition issues, both for the purpose of improving the quality and health of the population and for the prevention of chronic diseases related to these issues, which constitute a central burden in both countries.
2. Strengthening small and medium-sized companies in the developing industry in the fields of food and nutrition, by accessing established academic knowledge originating from academia in the United States and Israel.

Target audience for this call includes:

Technology Transfer Offices (TTO’s) applying on behalf of Israeli academic researchers, and Israeli corporations operating in the fields of food and nutrition.

Collaboration topics must deal with one or more of the areas listed below:

1. Food and nutrition improvement: Improving food quality and nutritional values, improving food safety, improving food composition by genetic means, educating the market for certain dietary habits, developing personalized foods for certain population groups (e.g., according to susceptibility, patients, and age), characterizing the links between nutrition and chronic diseases, developing innovative and nutritious raw materials for the food industry (e.g., proteins and sugar substitutes), improving nutritional supplements, or developing sources of new natural functional ingredients for food (e.g.: thickeners, stabilizers and paints).
2. Increasing the variety of food sources and food availability: innovative growing methods, increasing biodiversity of food sources, producing healthy food and growing it in an era of scarcity of resources (e.g., exploitation of agricultural inputs, energy and water), or reducing food losses of agricultural produce post-harvest.
3. Healthy consumption: personalized foods (e.g., microbiome, genetics, sensitivities/intolerances, etc.), development of systems for monitoring food quality and safety (e.g., technologies for maintaining quality in the post-production value chain, technology for detecting allergens in food), changing consumption habits or making healthy food attractive.

• For the 2025 list of active projects funded by NIFA and available for possible collaborations with the Israeli academic researchers click here.

Criteria

Prerequisites

1. Technological Infrastructures benefit program: Promoting Applied Research in Academia, will apply with the additional and cumulative prerequisites in which the applicant must meet the satisfaction of the Research Committee, including:
   • The application must include a lending corporation.
   • The program must be under the Collaboration Scope mentioned above of food and nutrition.
   • The BARD Foundation has confirmed that the American foreign research institution, mentioned in the applicant’s request, has been approved by the American National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) to add cooperation with the applicant as part of the implementation of the American foreign institution’s plan.
2. Technological Infrastructures benefit program: Knowledge Commercialization, will apply, to which two additional and cumulative prerequisites will be added, in which the applicant must meet the satisfaction of the Research Committee, and they are:
   • The program must be under the Collaboration Scope mentioned above of food and nutrition.
   • The BARD Foundation has confirmed that the American foreign research institution, mentioned in the applicant’s request, has been approved by the American National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) to add cooperation with the applicant as part of the implementation of the American foreign institution’s plan.

• For inquiries regarding pre-proposals submittals to NIFA, please contact BARD’s representative whose details are indicated below.

Application Evaluation Criteria

• The level of technological innovation and the degree of uniqueness of the program.
• The level of challenges in implementing the program.
• The applicant’s abilities, and the synergy with the American researcher.
• The project’s contribution to the field of food and nutrition.
• The potential for commercialization or establishment of Israeli companies for the development of products in the fields of food and nutrition.
• The degree of economic benefit that is expected to grow from the program’s products.

Application Process

• Deadline for submitting preliminary proposals to the BARD Fund: May 8th, 2025 at 23:59 (IST)
• The application is submitted in the personal area of the Innovation Authority website.
• Please note that the application document must be submitted in English only.