Israel Innovation Authority Approves $69M For Agtech Innovation

The Israel Innovation Authority (IIA) approved Wednesday the establishment of four new consortia in the fields of cultivated meat, insect farming, human-robot interface, and fluid sampling focused medical diagnosis, with an operating budget of NIS 220 million (US$69 million) to be disbursed over three years.

The move represents one of the largest public sector investments in cultivated meat in the world, bringing together leaders from the industry and academia, following a $10 million grant provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to Tufts University.

The Israel Innovation Authority’s Generic Technology Research Consortium program, operated by the Authority’s Technology Infrastructure Division is providing the funds. Grants will be available for research and development cooperation within the framework of each consortium (in this case a collaboration between industrial companies and academic institutions working toward the joint development of technologies). The aim is to support and promote technological cooperation with regard to the development of infrastructure and pre-products at the cutting edge of global technology with a likely significant impact both on Israeli companies and the economy as a whole.

IIA CEO Dror Bin said, “The four new consortiums, we have approved speak to the Authority’s strategy of supporting groundbreaking technological areas with the potential for a significant economic impact, with a substantial need for government involvement. Such government involvement is especially required in areas where cooperation would not otherwise take place without the active support of the Israel Innovation Authority.”

“All of the approved consortiums incorporate high-level multidisciplinary aspects that generally lead to significant technological breakthroughs. Two of the consortiums – cultivated meat and medical diagnosis – are, inter alia, the result of extensive activities by the Authority over the past two years to promote projects in the field of bio-convergence, which we believe, are likely to have a significant impact on the Israeli economy,” referring to technologies applied in the field of biology in conjunction with engineering fields or methods, such as electronics, AI, computational biology, physics, nanotechnology, materials science and advanced genetic engineering,” he added.

With regard to cultivated meat, which Tnuva’s innovation division is piloting in collaboration with Israeli cultivated meat companies, various start-up companies relevant to this field, industrial companies for the production of animal meat products and leading researchers from Israeli academia, the goal is to develop advanced and safe methods for the industrialized production of the product at an economically competitive price.

The initiative around the circular economy based on the Black Soldier fly is being piloted by Prism, a company that specializes in technologies for improving and preserving the reproduction of the insect along with other companies operating in the field of insect agriculture, companies specializing in the recycling and treatment of organic waste, companies that produce animal feed and other end products as well as leading researchers from academia.

Health startup Senseera, is piloting the consortium on fluid sampling focused medical diagnosis, which also includes diagnostics companies and leading researchers in academia and hospitals. It will develop capabilities for early detection of a number of specific diseases (pancreatic cancer, fatty liver and hepatitis NASH and Alzheimer’s) on the basis of which generic tools for early detection of various diseases in body fluids will be formulated.

Elbit, ICT and Cyber are leading the consortium on human-robot interaction, with a goal of developing capabilities to promote and streamline a variety of robotic tasks common to humans and autonomous systems. The IIA is particularly interested in the development of this field for both its potential in the civilian market and future security needs.