About | Michigan-Israel Partnership

Consider a future in which robots work alongside humans to search for disaster survivors and seniors monitor their response to bacterial infections in real time. Imagine a U-M scientist working with an Israeli scientist to discover new drugs from the treasure-trove of biodiversity in Israeli ecosystems, ranging from the Negev Desert to the Red Sea, or an engineer skilled in modeling airflow over airplane wings partnering with pediatric heart surgeons to pioneer a better flow valve to be implanted into the heart of a newborn child born with a heart defect.

Colleagues in Michigan and Israel are working together to achieve all of this and more.

Our mission and structure draw on the history and unique strengths of each partner: the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, where a cornerstone laid in 1912 now supports a world-class institute of scientific and technical education; the Weizmann Institute of Science, which was founded in 1934 and is today a trailblazing international center of multidisciplinary basic research and teaching; and the University of Michigan, the top public research university in the United States, which has been advancing the public good for 200 years and counting.

Individually, we have advanced some of the most innovative medical and engineering technology in the world. Together, leveraging diverse perspectives and expertise that spans all disciplines, we are more than the sum of our many outstanding parts.

Every project we take on has a faculty leader at Michigan and a faculty leader from either Technion or Weizmann — colleagues who have sought each other out, inspired by what they have learned about each other’s work. We have set up a rigorous scientific review process, and only the most promising projects are selected to move forward. As equal partners, we divide the funding for grants equally among the institutions participating in each effort.

Building on a strong foundation of success — evidenced by the continued swell of new collaborations, grant submissions, and highly attended annual symposia — we seek to ensure the future of our partnership, creating a sustainable structure that
is scalable and adaptable. As our efforts are fully funded by philanthropy, we have set a goal to:

• Launch transformative megaprojects to take on our greatest challenges and opportunities.
• Redouble the impact of juried collaborative research grants.
• Fuel educational exchanges at the heart of collaboration, including annual symposiums and fellowships.

Join us as we promote scientific interchange, invest in bi-national collaboration, recognize and honor partnerships between American and Israeli scientists, and enable bonds of friendship and understanding. Together, we can celebrate our cultures and honor our shared desire to make the world better for all.