Thirty-four Israeli proposals for joint projects with European countries in software, hardware, and communications have been awarded R&D grants by the EU Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Development (EU7). The aggregate is €17 million, with the latest grants boosting the total grants to Israeli companies under the EU7 to date to €290 million.
Israeli winners in the present round of grants include Alvarion, Israel Aerospace Industries, Mellanox Technologies and Afcon Industries, as well as start-ups Comsys Mobile, Ethernity Networks, Emza Visual Sense and LiveU.
Israeli units of global companies, including IBM Israel R&D center in Haifa, SAP Israel‘s R&D center, Applied Materials Israel and KLA-Tencor Israel have also won grants.
The Israeli companies are heading five of these projects, which the Office of the Chief Scientist said was an achievement.
Israel’s leading financial daily Globes reported that Chief Scientist Dr. Eli Opper, who heads the Israel-European R&D Directorate steering committee, said: “The results of the call for papers testifies to the great importance of Israeli participation in European programs in general, and the synergies created between European and Israeli industry in particular.”