Israeli, French institutions renew scientific brain research agreementA French-Israeli scientific agreement, known as the European Associated Laboratory Agreement (LEA), will be signed tomorrow at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem within the framework of the France-Israel Binational Symposium in Neuroscience. The new agreement marks the renewal of a 2004 joint project that established the Franco-Israeli Laboratory of System Neurophysiology and Neurophysics which brought together researchers from the French National Research Center (CNRS) and at the Hebrew University. That cooperative effort led to several collaborative research projects, and to joint scientific publications, as well as to the first-ever French-Israeli binational neuroscience symposium – a biannual event held this year at the Konrad Adenauer Center in Jerusalem. “Ties with the French scientific world and especially with the large research institutions in Europe create new opportunities in brain research,” said Prof. Israel Nelken of the Silberman Institute of Life Sciences at Hebrew University. “This cooperation is especially significant in a period during which one hears voices in Europe calling for a boycott of Israeli academia.”