Israel’s Chief Scientist’s Office and Ontario’s Ministry of Research and Innovation have extended a research and development collaboration deal by five years, The Jerusalem Post reported Monday. The new deal is worth $18 million, with each government contributing half.
The investment is worth it, [Ontario Minister of Reseach and Innovation Reza] Moridi told The Jerusalem Post , estimating that the companies that have come out of the joint R&D program have gone on to raise $1 billion in revenue.
According to Moridi, an Iranian-born nuclear scientist who moved to Canada in 1987, Israel and Ontario have a particularly strong relationship in the fields of life sciences, medical devices, cleantech and telecoms/ICT.
For example, the initiative has led to a partnership with Canada’s Quanser and Israel’s Simbionix to produce a tool that simulates laparoscopic surgery, which better trains doctors for delicate operations. Other joint projects have led to innovations in power savings for commercial power users, water monitoring with ultraviolet light and an ADD diagnostic tool and therapy.
David Shamah, the tech reporter for The Times of Israel, provided more details of the deal, which has been cultivated by the Canada-Israel Industrial Research and Development Foundation (CIIRDF).
Under the new Ontario-Israel Collaboration Program (OICP), Ontario and Israel will further enhance a relationship that began 10 years ago, when the two governments signed a Memorandum of Understanding on tech cooperation. Commenting on the new program, CIIRDF President Dr. Henri Rothschild said that the program was an enhancement of “the proven model of technology-based industrial cooperation. This program delivers significant value to companies, and the Ontario and Israel economy. For example, Ontario firms attribute $52.5 million in new revenues to OICP funding to date. Moreover, participating Ontario and Israeli companies project more than $1 billion in revenues upon the successful commercialization of jointly developed technologies.” …
But the strong tech relationship Canada has with Israel is doing wonders for both sides, according to the CIIRDF. The organization was established in 1994 under a formal mandate from the governments of Canada and Israel, and since then has financed more than 90 bilateral technology partnerships between more than 160 Canadian and Israeli companies. These alliances have enabled the joint development, marketing and sales of more than 50 new tech products over the past 18 years.
Based on conservative data provided directly by participating companies, said the group, “CIIRDF-enabled technologies have generated a minimum of hundreds of millions in economic value for Canadian and Israeli companies alone over the past decade.”
[Photo: Qanser / YouTube ]