The Forum is headed by a representative of the Academy, appointed by the Academy’s President.
Professor Shimon Ullman has served as the representative in recent years. The Forum’s members are the head of the Planning and Budgeting Committee of Israel’s Council for Higher Education; the head of the Israel Innovation Authority; the director-general of the Ministry of Science and Technology; the head of the Directorate of Defense Research and Development at the Ministry of Defense; and the deputy director of the Budget Department of the Ministry of Finance.
The Forum examines proposals for creating national R&D infrastructures – and, in recent years, national R&D programs as well – and recommends suitable ways to pool resources from the budgets of the Forum’s participating agencies and other interested parties. It also recommends the agencies to be entrusted with implementing and auditing projects within the designated budgetary frameworks.
The channels of support for R&D from national sources in Israel exist mainly in the following frameworks:
- High-quality basic research, managed and budgeted on a competitive basis;
- R&D based on technological innovation for the benefit of industrial development, managed and budgeted on a competitive basis;
- Sectoral R&D in the fields of agriculture, defense, etc., managed and budgeted on the basis of needs and expectations of defined applications.
TELEM’s partners believe that in addition to these support channels, there is a need from time to time to support the establishment of broad R&D infrastructures for the purpose of addressing the needs of multiple interested parties who are all engaged in R&D activity in the same field. The TELEM forum conducts professional reviews of the proposals and methods for establishing such national infrastructures.
Hebrew-language reports submitted to the TELEM forum on various topics from 1998 to 2021 may be found here.
In recent years, the TELEM forum has decided on the pooling of resources and the execution of scientific and technological projects amounting to billions of shekels, including the following:
- Establishment of a national tissue bank – NIS 36 million
- Advanced photonics – NIS 140 million
- Brain research – NIS 65 million
- Establishment of a clinical genome database within the framework of the Mosaic Initiative for Personalized Medicine, with the participation of the Ministry of Health and the National Digital Agency – NIS 239 million
- Quantum science and technology – NIS 1.25 billion
- Artificial intelligence – NIS 529 million, in the first phase. Last year, a decision was made for a further phase, at a cost of about NIS 500 million, to be implemented starting next year.
- An institute for small satellite research – NIS 100 million
- A bioconvergence program – NIS 525 million, with the addition of independent activity by various agencies at a cost of about NIS 725 million
In recent years, the Forum has dealt mainly with four programs, following recommendations by professional review committees:
- The quantum science and technology program: On the initiative of the Planning and Budgeting Committee, a professional review committee headed by Dr. Orna Berry was created in 2018 to examine the need to pool resources for investment in a national quantum technology program. The committee based its work on that of a committee formed under the leadership of Prof. Uri Sivan and on the needs report prepared jointly by the Directorate of Defense Research and Development and the Innovation Authority. The committee recommended investing in the following areas: quantum computing, cloud time, applied academic and laboratory infrastructure, sensing (defense and dual-purpose R&D), training human capital, direct research, and international cooperation. The committee’s recommendations were approved in May 2019. The program was budgeted, and it has been operating and submitting regular reports of its work to the Forum.
- A small satellite infrastructure program: A professional committee headed by Prof. Haim Eshed, a retired brigadier general and former director of space programs for the Ministry of Defense, was formed to examine the need for establishing a national small satellites infrastructure. Small satellites are a prominent example of the “new space” revolution. Their development is based on mechanical and electrical standardization, miniaturization technologies, and the use of off-the-shelf components, for the purpose of reducing costs and speeding up the R&D process to enable efficient and affordable access to space both for academia and for small and medium-sized companies. The committee concluded that the establishment of a national infrastructure center for miniature and small satellites (up to 100 kilograms) would be of great value in serving as a platform for germinating new ideas in academia and industry and encouraging R&D in the field of space. The center would also engage in the regulatory and commercial handling of ventures, in such areas as frequency coordination, security exports, and the efficient and centralized execution of acquisitions and launch contracts, using the accumulated knowledge and legacy of Israeli companies. The committee submitted its conclusions, and the program was approved and budgeted.
- An artificial intelligence program: A review committee on this important subject, headed by Dr. Orna Berry, examined the need to create an infrastructure for artificial intelligence and data science, the advisability of its creation, and its feasibility. The committee submitted its recommendations to the Forum, which approved the report and the proposed program. Due to uncertainty regarding its long-term budgeting, the program was divided into yearly phases. In 2021, a budget of NIS 520 million was approved for launching the project and carrying out the first phase, which focused on language models in Hebrew and Arabic, computational infrastructure for artificial intelligence, and staffing support. The second phase, with a further budget of about NIS 500 million, was approved and implemented in the last year.
- The bioconvergence program: A professional review committee headed by Prof. Rivka Carmi addressed the advancement of bioconvergence, a multidisciplinary field that emphasizes the synergy between the life sciences and biology and the engineering sciences. The committee examined the possibility of establishing R&D infrastructure in Israel that would support the development and advancement of multidisciplinary basic academic research, as well as applied technological, medical, and industrial research in the area of bioconvergence, as an engine for technological and economic innovation, including the development of knowledge, R&D capabilities, and production, with a view to establishing profitable Israeli companies employing high-quality personnel. The Forum members approved the review committee’s recommendations in principle in April 2022, with a preliminary budget of NIS 435 million. The Planning and Budgeting Committee and the Ministry of Health joined the program in April 2023 with plans to invest in expensive equipment infrastructure in academia, advanced degree studies, and research grants serving the bioconvergence field, and the scope of the program was expanded to some NIS 525 million. Alongside this work, the various organizations conduct independent activity amounting to about NIS 725 million.