Since its inception, BSF has awarded some
$480 million to more than 4,140 research projects involving more than 2,000 scientists from more than
400 institutions located in 46 states, Puerto Rico and the District
of Columbia. Many of these projects have led to important scientific, medical and technological breakthroughs with wide-ranging practical applications.
BSF has documented no less than 75 new discoveries
made possible by its research grants and counts 37 Nobel Prize and 19
Lasker Medical Award laureates among its joint partners.
Shimon Peres, the President of Israel, noted, "The
support of the United States-Israel Binational Science Foundation will
prepare the next generation of US and Israeli scientists for a leadership
role in our global community."
Most of the projects that BSF funds are in basic research;
however, grants are also given to applied and technological research in Life Sciences,
Natural Sciences, Social Sciences and Exact Sciences..
Proposals are submitted by individual scientists through their institutions,
and are evaluated on the basis of their scientific merit, as well as
the degree of cooperation. Grant requests can be made for a period of
up to four years.
Proposals are evaluated by a peer review process. Assistance
in the review and evaluation of proposals is rendered by science advisers.
Advisers are recruited on a part-time basis from among senior research
scientists in Israel and the U.S. Each of them is assigned a group
of proposals in his or her field of specialization with the charge to
select suitable referees. Final recommendations for grant awards are
made by the science advisers' panels, together with the Executive Director,
and are presented to the Board of Governors for approval.
BSF-sponsored studies are highly successful in achieving
their two main goals: strengthening the US-Israel partnership through
science and promoting world-class scientific research for the benefit
of the two countries and all mankind. The BSF grants help extend research
resources to achieve milestones that might not otherwise be attainable;
introduce novel approaches and techniques to lead American researchers
in new directions; confirm, clarify and intensify research projects;
and provide unmatched access to Israeli equipment, facilities and research
results that help speed American scientific advances.
As of 2001/02, pursuant
to the Board of Governors resolution, submission
of grant applications is on a split-program
basis, namely: the eligibility to submit
applications is limited, in alternate years,
to either health sciences, life sciences
and psychology or to exact, natural and social
sciences. Prior to that, applications were
accepted every year in all areas of research
supported by the BSF.
In 2012, 463 eligible applications for funding were submitted for the Health Sciences, Life Sciences, Psychology and Biomedical Engineering fields. This is the highest number of applicants the BSF has had since it began its split-program in 2001.
In 2010, US Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), a member
of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, voiced her strong opinion
that US support of the BSF and other such binational funds between the
US and Israel be kept and strengthened. As she told her Senate colleagues,
"US-Israel collaboration and the work of foundations such as...
BSF, have had a lasting and fundamental impact on our countries' economies
and relationsip."
The benefits to the United States from BSF-sponsored
studies include the extension and elaboration of research to achieve
milestones that might not have been reached otherwise; the introduction
of novel thinking and techniques that led American researchers to move
in new directions; confirmation, clarification and intensification of
research projects; access to Israeli equipment and facilities unavailable
elsewhere and early access to Israeli research results that sped American
scientific advances.
Find out more about the various BSF grant programs,
eligibility requirements and financial terms by visiting their site
HERE.
