ISF Academic Board Chair Prof. Daniel Zajfman (left) and GACR President Prof. Milan Jirsa (right)
Yesterday in Prague, the Czech Science Foundation (GACR) signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Israel Science Foundation (ISF). This agreement will enable Czech and Israeli scientists to submit joint proposals for basic research projects starting next year.
“Israel has long been one of the countries to invest most heavily in research and development, with one of the highest ratios of research spending to GDP in the world. As a result, Israeli science is characterized by global excellence and an extraordinary ability to apply the results of basic research in practice. I believe that Czech scientists will take full advantage of this opportunity for cooperation and that both parties will benefit from it,” said GACR President Prof. Milan Jirsa.
The first joint call for proposals will be launched next year. Funding is expected for several dozen of the highest-ranked proposals, which will be carried out over a period of three years.
Both science foundations will participate in funding the joint projects – GACR will finance the Czech part of each project, and ISF will finance the Israeli part. The projects will first undergo a rigorous scientific evaluation by one of the institutions. Both foundations use comparably robust evaluation systems, which allows them to share evaluation results and ensures the high quality of the projects funded.
The Memorandum was signed yesterday at the GACR headquarters by GACR President Prof. Milan Jirsa, ISF Academic Board Chair Prof. Daniel Zajfman, ISF Director-General Dr. Tamar Jaffe-Mittwoch, in presence of Israeli Ambassador Anna Azari.