The mission of the Israel-U.S. Binational Industrial Research and Development (BIRD) Foundation is to stimulate, promote and support industrial R&D of mutual benefit to the U.S. and Israel.
The BIRD Foundation was established by the U.S. and Israeli governments in 1977 to generate mutually beneficial cooperation between the private sectors of the U.S. and Israeli high tech industries, including start-ups and established organizations. BIRD provides both matchmaking services between U.S. and Israeli companies as well as funding covering up to 50 percent of project development and product commercialization costs.
BIRD supports approximately 20 projects annually with a total investment of around $11 million per year. To date, BIRD has invested over $225 million in 730 projects, which have produced sales of over $8 billion.
BIRD's investment, ranging from $500,000 to $1,000,000 over 2-3 years for full scale projects (where total project cost to the two companies is at least twice the BIRD grant) and $100,000 over a year or less for mini-projects (where total cost is at least $200,000), buys it neither equity nor intellectual property rights – it provides simply the commitment to receive repayments from successful projects, up to a modest maximum. Repayments in the year 2000 totaled $6 million. Since the establishment of the Foundation 25 years ago, the accumulated repayments have totaled $64 million.
Any pair of companies, one Israeli and one U.S.-based, may apply jointly so long as they can demonstrate the combined capabilities and infrastructure to define, develop, manufacture, sell and support an innovative product based on industrial R&D. The companies may be simply cooperating on an ad hoc basis, linked through a corporate joint venture, or commonly owned (in whole or in part).
The key criterion is that each corporate entity shall have the ability to carry out its part of the joint development and commercialization. Their willingness to share in the financial risk of product development as well as in the financial gain of commercialization is also a key factor in BIRD's evaluation. Typically the role of the larger company is product definition and specification, sales, and service, while the role of the smaller company is in product development and some manufacturing. Up to 35 full-scale projects and 20 mini-projects may be approved each year.
(SOURCE: http://www.birdf.com)
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