USDA announces ag research collaboration with Israel
Category: Policy
(Farm Futures) – USDA announced an enhanced funding partnership with Israel to better leverage new agricultural research for mutual scientific benefit. The updated agreement is administered by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) and the U.S.-Israel Binational Agricultural Research and Development Fund (BARD).
“This partnership is a win for international scientific collaboration,” said NIFA Director Sonny Ramaswamy. “The enhanced NIFA-BARD agreement will use funding and scientific resources to meet common research goals and have a positive global impact.”
Beginning in early 2017, Israeli scientists can align their research with Fiscal Year 2016 NIFA-funded competitive grant research projects of mutual benefit to both nations. This new opportunity builds on an existing 2013 NIFA-BARD agreement to promote joint research, which has already resulted in the development of a model wastewater reuse program and analysis of hydrophobic soil in dry climates.
USDA announced an enhanced funding partnership with Israel to better leverage new agricultural research for mutual scientific benefit. (Photo: i3D_VR/Thinkstock)
Through this agreement, U.S. scientists have two ways to collaborate with Israeli researchers either through new joint research projects or by coupling Israeli scientists’ new projects to NIFA projects on the same topic. In both cases the Israeli scientists will receive funding through BARD, and the U.S. scientists will receive funding through NIFA. The resulting research will amplify both the funds and knowledge base to strengthen research outcomes. Some of the research areas of interest for this U.S.-Israel collaborative initiative include food security, water for agriculture, food safety, sustainable bioenergy, and bioproducts.
The NIFA-BARD agreement to support extramural research builds on the longstanding relationship between BARD and the Agricultural Research Service (ARS), USDA’s intramural research agency, which have cooperated on research together since BARD’s inception in 1977. This update is conducted through NIFA’s Center for International Programs (CIP).
