Israel's Ministry of Science and Technology, the France-Israel Foundation, and the Embassy of France in Israel are jointly organizing, for the very first time, a conference for young scientists on 8-11 March at the Mount Zion Hotel in Jerusalem. This multi-disciplinary conference will comprise 15 young scientists from Israel and 12 from France who received research grants from the European Union for ground-breaking research. During the three days of deliberations, the research scientists from both countries will present the results of their work in a variety of areas for which they received the prestigious grants.
The scientists will be hosted by the President of Israel at his residence on 8 March, with the participation of Israel's Minister of Science and Technology, Prof. Daniel Hershkowitz, the Ambassador of France, Mr. Christophe Bigot, and the Vice President of the France-Israel Foundation, Mrs. Dina Sorek.
The initiative for the conference came from the Israeli-French High Council for Scientific and Technological Cooperation, which convenes annually jointly with the France-Israel Foundation. In 2004, an agreement was signed by both countries according to which Israel and France will jointly invest one million dollars annually to fund scientific research.
Israel's Minister of Science and Technology, Prof. Daniel Hershkowitz. said, "Our aim is to promote international scientific cooperation. Scientific cooperation with France constitutes an example of fruitful cooperation from which both countries benefit." The Director-General of Israel's Ministry of Science and Technology, Mr. Menachem Greenblum, noted, "The Ministry of Science and Technology is committed to promoting the reserve of young scientists in Israel and, therefore, we are proud to initiate and host a conference which will contribute not only to young Israeli scientists, but also to scientists from a country which has close scientific ties with Israel."
The research program of the European Research Council, which operates within the framework of the European 7th Framework Program (FP7) for R&D, began operating in 2007 and is considered today to be among the most prestigious in the world. More than 10,000 researchers from the member states of the EU submitted their candidacy to receive grants; of them 563 outstanding young scientists have thus far been chosen from 21 different countries. The beneficiaries of the grants are considered to have the "potential" of receiving in the future the Nobel Prize in Science.
The State of Israel is a participating member of the EU's FP7. The program in Israel is run by ISERD - the Israel-Europe R&D Directorate for the EU Framework Program. Its Steering Committee is chaired by Dr. Eli Opper, the Chief Scientist of Israel's Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor. Additional members of the ISERD team are Prof. David Mendlovic, the Chief Scientist of the Ministry of Science and Technology, and Prof. Shimon Yankelevich of Tel Aviv University, who serves also as the representative of the Planning and Budgeting Committee of the Council for Higher Education.
The Israeli scientists are from the leading academic institutions in the country: the Technion, the Weizmann Institute, the Hebrew University, Ben-Gurion University, Bar Ilan University, and Tel Aviv University.
The France-Israel Foundation was established in 2005 with the goal of bringing about a change of Israel's image in France and of France's image in Israel, in order to deepen the ties between both nations in all productive areas: science, culture, the economy, and the media. Prof. Ilan Marek, Technion, is the head of the scientific committee.