Israel-US Program Invests $6.3M In Homeland Security Projects

A Israel-US foundation to support bilateral technological endeavors has invested $6.3 million in three homeland security projects dealing with the early detection of threats.  

The Binational Industrial Research and Development (BIRD) foundation encourages cooperation between US and Israeli companies in different technological sectors.  

BIRD provides up to 50 percent of a project’s budget and does not take any equity or intellectual property rights. 

The three projects that have qualified were jointly selected by the US Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate and the Israeli Ministry of National Security. The only stipulation was that the projects had to include both an Israeli and an American company.

The projects are:

Validit.ai (Haifa) and Inspire Labs (New York, New York) will develop real-time biofeedback-based fraud detection for HLS field deployment; 

NeuralGuard (Netanya) and Point Security (Lexington, North Carolina) will develop an AI automated detection system of explosive devices for X-ray;

NextVision Stabilized Systems (Raanana) and Data Blanket (Bellevue, Washington) will develop an airborne detector and computer vision system for wildfire elimination and real-time situational awareness in disaster response applications and HLS.

“Recent events in Israel lead to increased need and motivation to invest in technologies that can improve early detection of threats and upgrade the preparedness of first responders,” said BIRD Executive Director Jaron Lotan said. 

“The three granted projects, all of them focused on early detection of different threats, are a good indication of the futuristic tools that will serve first responders in the years to come.”