The government has announced two initiatives to bring Israeli innovation and British business together, helping businesses become more competitive, while releasing more Israeli technologies into the wider world.
The two agreements will address ageing and artificial intelligence, which are two of the government's four Industrial Strategy Grand Challenges. The agreement, which is valued at 4 million over a period of several years, will see each country injecting half into the schemes and will hopefully make the UK the "world's most innovative nation" by 2030.
"The UK has a strong science and innovation relationship with Israel, and this week I have signed two landmark agreements which will take this to the next level," science minister Sam Gyimah said. "There are so many strategic opportunities for these two innovation power houses. Increased collaboration will help to realize this potential."
"Many of the challenges we face, from an ageing society to disruption caused by AI and big data, are felt around the world," Gyimah added. "With our commitment to embrace the opportunities of these through our Industrial Strategy Grand Challenges, we need to work with our international partners, like Israel, to ensure we take advantage of these global changes and improve people's lives for the better."
Gyimah announced the opening of the new Britain Israel Research and Academic Exchange Partnership (BIRAX), which will help address ageing by encouraging businesses and researchers to come up with new ideas to address the ageing population with new treatments and technologies.
The government also pledged to increase the number of places on the British Council's Higher Education Scholarship Palestine (HESPAL) to encourage academics to build relationships between Palestinian and UK universities.
"Israel is recognised as the "Start-Up Nation" with more start-ups per capita than anywhere but Silicon Valley, an established entrepreneurial culture and hundreds of multinationals looking for innovation here," minister of Economy and Industry, Eli Cohen said. "Collaboration with Israeli innovation ecosystem will help UK enterprises unlock the potential of integrating innovating technology to transform their business.
He said the agreements will help drive innovation in both countries, developing relationships between businesses to help Israeli innovations go global, while aiding British businesses gain the competitive edge in the international marketplace.
Image: Shutterstock
