BIRD is an acronym for Israel-U.S. Binational Industrial Research and Development.
The BIRD Foundation’s mission is to stimulate, promote and support industrial R&D of mutual benefit to the U.S. and Israel.
The BIRD Foundation (www.birdf.com) was established by the U.S. and Israeli governments in 1977 to generate mutually beneficial cooperation between the private sectors of the U.S. and Israeli high tech industries, including start-ups and established organizations. BIRD provides both matchmaking services between U.S. and Israeli companies, as well as funding covering up to 50 percent of project development and product commercialization costs.
BIRD provides support of up to 50% of a project’s budget, beginning with R&D and ending with the initial stages of sales and marketing. BIRD shares the risk and requires repayment only if the project achieves revenue. BIRD supports projects without receiving any equity or IP rights in the participating companies or technologies.
The BIRD Foundation was established by the U.S. and Israeli governments in 1977 to generate mutually beneficial cooperation between U.S. and Israeli companies, including start-ups and established organizations. BIRD provides both matchmaking support between U.S. and Israeli companies, as well as funding covering up to 50 percent of project development costs, up to $1.5M per project. BIRD takes no equity in the companies.
BIRD’s scope extends to Advanced Manufacturing, Agrotechnology, Cleantech, Energy and Environment, Communications, Construction Tech, Cyber Security, Electronics, FinTech, FoodTech, Healthcare IT, Homeland Security, Life Sciences, Nanotechnology, Semiconductors, Software, Water and and other areas of innovative technology with commercial potential.
Since its inception in 1977, BIRD has approved investments in close to 1200 projects, which have yielded direct and indirect revenues of more than $10 billion. BIRD’s Board of Governors approves projects twice a year. Projects are evaluated by expert reviewers appointed by the Israel Innovation Authority (IIA) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), U.S. Department of Commerce.
How does the BIRD Foundation Operate?
Any pair of companies, one Israeli and one U.S.-based, may apply jointly so long as they can demonstrate the combined capabilities and infrastructure to define, develop, manufacture, sell and support an innovative product based on industrial R&D.The key criterion is that each corporate entity shall have the ability to carry out its part of the joint development and commercialization. Their willingness to share in the financial risk of product development as well as in the financial gain of commercialization, are also key factors in BIRD’s evaluation.
The BIRD Foundation offers conditional grants for joint development projects on a risk- sharing basis. The Foundation funds up to 50% of each company’s R&D expenses associated with the joint project, up to $1.5M per project. Repayments are due only upon commercial success.
BIRD Vertical Programs
The Foundation also manages BIRD Energy, a program which promotes and supports U.S.-Israel joint development projects relating to clean energy technologies.
Another binational program managed by the Foundation is “BIRD Homeland Security(HLS).” BIRD HLS is a joint U.S.-Israel program that aims to foster and support the development of advanced technologies for the homeland security mission.
In 2018, the BIRD Foundation was selected to manage the U.S.-Israel Energy Center.
The goal of the Energy Center is to promote energy security and economic development through the research and development of innovative energy technologies, currently covering four topics: Energy Storage, Energy Cyber, Energy-Water Nexus and Fossil Energy.
BIRD Cyber is the most recent program to be added to those managed by BIRD to promote collaborations focused on the development of cybersecurity and related emerging technologies aimed at enhancing cyber resilience by harnessing the innovation and ingenuity of the Israeli and American technology sectors.