Much attention was focused on Paris, France,
which featured a Peace Conference without the main players present.
However, a conference involving the EU in Jerusalem, Israel,
received much less attention and took place
at the Jerusalem Theater.
For 20 years, Israel and Europe have been working
together on science, research, and development
under a program named ISERD,
Israel-Europe Research and Development.
In celebration of 20 years of cooperation
a conference was convened.
The first of three panels was on excellence in science,
and all the participants were women.
The video programs screened between panel presentations
highlighted some of the outstanding and
advanced technologies developed in multiple fields.
If you need a special pump for an experiment,
just make it and use it.
The head of IBM Cyber Security
was on a panel with the Head of Technology of Israel Police.
Many of the discussions sounded like science fiction,
from imagining technology to fuels from waste water and more.
Lars Faaborg-Andersen EU Ambassador to Israel was all smiles.
He often speaks about EU-Israel cooperation.
In Paris it was hard to see,
but whatever they said and did in Paris,
Europeans have been funding projects in Israel for at least 20 years.
Hundreds of researchers and funders gathered,
networked, and talked during the ISERD conference.
Research equipment can be complex and costly.
The EU has a program called Horizon 2020,
which offers billions of Euros to bolster the EU’s
position as a world leader in science.
Europeans want Israeli entrepreneurs to invent
what the EU needs and lacks in areas of development.
The World Economic Forum has named Israel as
second most innovative country in the world after Switzerland.
Israel is opening a new Innovation program next week.
Israeli Small and Medium Enterprises, SMEs,
will have more grant opportunities available
for research projects.
The sky is no longer the limit.
Israeli ingenuity is in demand.
Did you see any media coverage anywhere
of the ISERD 20th celebration?
It happened last week in Jerusalem, Israel.
Diplomats make their declarations,
while Israelis are turning amazing ideas into reality.
