SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER IN ISRAEL

ISRAEL FRANCE INTRODUCTION MEETING

EREZ ETZIONTEL AVIV UNIVERSITY

20/2/2011

Erez Etzion, Tel Aviv University 2

Background

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• Population 7.4 M (France 61 M)

• Land 22,145 km2, (France 552,000 km2)

• Population density 334 people/km2 • (France 110 people/km2)• GDP (PPP)/capita=28.4K$

(France 35.8K$). • Unemployment ~6.5% (France

10.1%)• R&D 8.8 B$ (France 43

B$)• % of R&D/GDP for Civilian: 4.7%

(highest in the world) (France 2.%)• Average monthly wage:1.9K$

(France 3300 euro).

TECHNION(HEP, TH&EXP)Haifa Univ (no HEP)

Tel-Aviv University (HEP TH&EXPBar-Ilan University (no HEP)

Open University Hebrew Uni. Jerusalem

(HEP TH)Weizmann Inst., Rehovot

(HEP TH&EXP)

Univ. of Ber-Sheva(HEP TH&EXP)

Erez Etzion, Tel Aviv University 3

General Comments on Israeli Education and Research• Education - a priority in Israel. First two Universities

established 24 years before the existence of the State.• 29% of labor force have 16+ years of schooling (50% of

the young population goes through tertiary education) (2ed in the world <Norway, =US)

• In the early period, research was mainly driven by Agricultural Research, out of the need of transforming the dessert and swamps.

• Serious Industrial Research started in the late 70’s early 80’s (mainly electronics and communication).

• In 85 Law to Encourage Industrial R&D was approved. Fund was established, that reached 400M$ in 2000-1

• Physics Research started in Jerusalem, and at the Technion. This, together with some new immigrants formed most of the Theorists, while Experimentalists were formed by sending them abroad in the 50’s and 60‘s.

– Funding for Basic Science is mainly done through the National Science Foundation ( depending on the Academy of Science and Humanities)

Civilian R&D as % of GDP

Source: Central Bureau of Statistics, Israel

4.7% of GDP in 2007

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Erez Etzion, Tel Aviv University 4

Higher Education in Israel• Growth of number of academic institutions in Israel in the

17 years.

Higher Education in Israel A Quick Glance: Facts & Figures

1990 2007

INSTITUTIONS 21 62

• Universities 7 7

• Open University 1 1

• Art Academies 2 2

• Comprehensive Colleges 0 9

• Engineering Colleges 2 7

• Teacher Training Colleges 7 27

• Non-Budgeted Comprehensive Colleges 2 9

STUDENTS 89,000 STUDENTS 89,000 256,438256,438

2010:8 Universities (7 with large Research Programs) & 60 Academies/Colleges.

TECHNION created in 1924 & HU Jerusalem in 1925, Weizmann in 1935,

(in 1948: 1,600 students, in 2007: 254,000)

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Erez Etzion, Tel Aviv University 5

Tel Aviv University• Young .. Established in 1956 (formally 63)• The largest university in Israel comprising:• Nine faculties: Engineering, Exact Sciences, Life

Sciences, Medicine, Humanities, Law, Social Sciences, Arts and Management.

• 106 departments, 90 research institutes.• 26,000 students

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Erez Etzion, Tel Aviv University 6

The Raymond and Beverly Sackler School of Physics and Astronomy• Founded in 1963• Three departments — Astronomy and Astrophysics

(+wise observatory), Condensed Matter Physics, and Particle Physics.

• Research groups in applied physics, in bioinformatics, and in quantum information.

• Employ an academic staff of 37 faculty members, teaching more than 600 undergraduate and graduate students.

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Physics Students in Israel• General drop of

Physics Students in the late 90‘s.

• Trend changed, mainly due to the immigration from Science minded Students from Russia as well as the High-Tech boom.0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

1600

Undergrad. HEP

1999

2004

2007

2008

Graduate

Total

Male

Female

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Manpower overview in HEP

• Although Total # of HEP Physicists/habitants, as well as student proportion is close to the European average, this is strongly dominated by TH.

• There is a problem in advancing/hiring staff in Experimental HEP, mainly due to the opposition of physicists in other fields.

• This is a general problem in many small countries.

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

Run. Exp. Fture. Facil. Acc. Phys. Theory

PhD St.

Post-Docs

Scientists

Total internal yearly budget for HEP, excluding staff salaries: ~5MCHF

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Erez Etzion, Tel Aviv University 9

Scientific Education leads to a high level of publications

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Erez Etzion, Tel Aviv University 10

Including in Physics

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Erez Etzion, Tel Aviv University 11

But not only in Physics

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Erez Etzion, Tel Aviv University 12

Overview of Technology Transfer in Israeli Academia

• Technology Transfer firms (e.g. RAMOT @TAU) shield the researcher from legal issues, taking care of Intellectual Property, finding commercial partners, setting up the licensing arrangements and transfer of royalties.

• The Israeli Government, via the Office of the Chief Scientist of the Ministry of Industry, Labor and Trade, financing a series of initiatives that emphasize common projects between Industry and Academia. The main programs are:

– MAGNET - Long term programs with a total envelope per project of up to 36M$ over a 5 year period (80% of the budget by the gov.).

– MAGNETON: Mainly for feasibility proof. Its overall envelope is 800K$ per project over a period of up to 2 years, 66% financed by Government funding.

– NOFAR: Assistance to Academic Research supported by Industry on feasibility studies to pass from basic to applied research. Typical Government funds are between 10 to 30K$ per project.

• Series of 20-25 “Industrial Incubators”, which range from Projects in the phase of applicability to new enterprises and Start-Ups, supported up to 85% by Government funds.

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Erez Etzion, Tel Aviv University 13

Strong Tech Transfer effort impact on patents #

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As well as in the importance of High-Tech in the Industrial Production

• Sales of High-Tech products have reached 21B$ in 2008, with a yearly growth of 10%.

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Erez Etzion, Tel Aviv University 15

CONCLUSION

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• Israel grew up very fast in the last few decades both in academia and industry.

• Some of the numbers per capita are high• However it’s a small country and therefore

judging in absolute numbers there is still a lot of phase space to grow