Periodic Report Summary 3 - CEREHA (Centre of Excellence for Research on Environment, Health and Aging)
Project Context and Objectives:
1. Publishable summary
CEREHA - Centre of Excellence for Research on Environment, Health and Aging was establish three years ago and was developed as a multi-disciplinary Centre led by MIGAL. The objective of this centre of Excellence is to become an internationally known research institute, which is capable of initiating and performing excellent interrelated studies. During the last three years we succeeded to grow and establish the Centre in Israel and Europe as an advanced research institute, organised workshops in Israel and in Wageningen, (planning additional ones in 2015 in Greifswald and Brussels) and advanced collaborative projects with many European colleagues.
The following is our report for the third year.
1.1 Recruitment Process
We continued recruiting additional two senior researchers in last year, in addition to the six researchers recruited during the first year and another five researchers at the second year. In addition to the six post-docs recruited in the 1st year and six in the second year, we recruited additional four Post-Docs. Some of those recruited personnel already succeeded in receiving funds from competitive grant proposals.
Most of the new recruited personnel, as well as Head of Laboratories, did their research at the new Upper-MIGAL laboratories at Tel-Hai Industrial Park that are very unique and of high standards. The new equipment that was purchased during the CEREHA project, and especially during the last year, enabled high standard research. We are very proud that the CEREHA project enabled us to expand our activities in such a new environment and results in upgrading the research are already seen.
This development enables the recruited researchers achieving at their new labs the excellence we are aiming at and ensure the sustainability of the CEREHA Centre of Excellence. It also provided the suitable conditions to train students from our associated-partners’ universities and also Danziger high-school students who were taught biotechnological procedures. Dr Itamar Yadid, Head of the Microbial Metabolic Pathways Research Laboratory in MIGAL and one of the CEREHA researchers is mentoring a group of young students from a nearby high school who are developing a Gluten detection kit. He is mentoring them at the new Tel-Hai laboratories and assisting them in the preparation to a prestigious science contest that was held in Boston, USA. This activity supports the regional development of the Galilee and in this respect the CEREHA project impacts also the young population in the area.
Secondments
During the third year several MIGAL researchers visited colleagues from the associated partners' universities (including Wayne University in Detroit, USA) and industries, and several colleagues sent their students to do work at MIGAL’s laboratories. At our meetings and conferences several colleagues came to the Galilee to lectures. In addition, we performed a workshop in Wageningen University in the Nederland that was very successful with 49 participants (from MIGAL, WUR and Spain, Italy, UK, Serbia and Belgium). We performed a workshop in Greifswald on 4-6th of November 2015, and the final conference of CEREHA in Brussels, November 26th, 2015. As a result, several collaborative proposals were already developed and submitted to competitive foundations and some are under work for the Horizon 2020 Calls in 2016 and 2017. In addition, many ideas were exchanged and some additional joint projects are expected, since the relations with our associate partners are strengthening.
1.2 Management
We had many contacts and discussions with our colleagues from the EU universities, as well as with Novartis and industries in the fields that CEREHA is advancing. Our SAC colleagues arrived in Israel and we had very fruitful discussions and exchanging ideas on finding ways to recruit additional researchers, as well as presenting the outcomes. These good contacts led to bring students from Europe to MIGAL as well as doing some work at the EU institutes. It also established the way to sustain CEREHA after the end of the FP7 project.
There are regular meetings of the MIGAL administration staff (CEO; CFO; coordinator; Chief Scientists; Prof Litaor and administrator), discussing steps of implementation, budget & plans. Somce of the Scientific Advisory Committee is scheduled to meet again at the end of November 2015 (during the workshop in Brussels). We establish contacts with industries, both in Israel and abroad, and are planning implementing the MIGAL results in the future.
1.3 Workshops and Conferences at CEREHA
At the third year we organised the following events:
a. Bio-Medicine 5th conference which was held on Tuesday, 10/08/14, at Kibbutz Gonen, Israel
b. Nutrition Promoting Health conference that was held on 26/10/14 at Kiryat Shmona. Around 270 participants attended the conference from all parts of Israel.
c. Examining a new gene-based approach for the selective elimination of alloreactive T cells and prevention of graft-versus-host disease. Conference with Galilee Hospitals, 26/02/2015, Kibbutz Gonen, Israel.
d. Microbiology 2015 – Environment and Health, March 29-31, 2015, Kibbutz Hagoshrim, Israel
e. Workshop for MIGAL’s Researchers and ICT industries, 16/04/2015
f. Wageningen workshop at Wageningen University 9-12 September, 2015
g. Greifswald workshop at Greifswald University, 4-6 November 2015
Planned:
h. Final CEREHA Conference, to take place in Brussels, Belgium.
Additional important activities included a visit of the Ministries and staff of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Space, and a visit from the Chief Scientist of the Ministry of Agriculture, the Director of the Ministry of Economics and his staff of Strategy, and several of the Mayors of the region.
In addition, the activity that has been started in 2013 regarding combining Biotechnology, Agriculture and Environment, developed very well with the aims of CEREHA, and involves two Parliament Members - Erel Margalit and Hamed Omar. This activity will broaden the scope of CEREHA to FUNCTIONAL FOODS in the Galilee, and several meetings with the municipalities’ chairpersons and many Galilee People took place.
1.4 Purchasing equipment and renovation of the laboratory for the new recruited researchers
We continued the process of purchasing the equipment needed to upgrade the research at the CEREHA Centre, focusing on the needs of the newly-recruited researchers. It was a long process since the approval of additional budget for purchasing equipment was in 2015 and we followed all regulation concerning publishing procurements and calls.
1.5 Research collaboration and submitted proposals
As a result of the visits and meetings with our colleagues from Europe several proposals were submitted and some mutual work is developing. A list of cooperation with European researchers is enclosed.
As part of the new Galilee initiative of establishing an Agro-Biomedical Hub in the Galilee, GABRA has established close contacts with leading agro-bio companies in Israel aiming at performing clinical trials with their natural products. Such steps are critical in establishing "Health Claims" for the products according to the requirements of the international regulatory authorities (i.e. FDA, EMEA).
1.6 Publicity and newsletters
During the third CEREHA’s year the researchers at MIGAL published many articles in journals. From the academic point of view the researchers had several successes in receiving grants for further development of projects
We published an additional newsletter that was distributed on the CEREHA web-site to the CEREHA's partners in Europe as well as to a large audience that are interested in our work.
CEREHA was presented in several occasions to the public, through lectures, conferences and exhibitions, newsletters, newspapers publications, news in radio and TV in Israel and abroad. CEREHA and MIGAL’s research work were presented in many occasions in Israel, Italy (JRC-Ispra), Nederland (Wageningen workshop), Croatia (NETWORC H2O), Belgium (Brussels), Germany (Greifswald, workshop), Spain (Barcelona and Zaragoza), Ukraine (Kiev) USA (Detroit), Malta (Malta), UK (Peterborough), and Portugal (Aviero).
Researchers at MIGAL submitted several patents and were very active in developing projects with industries, receiving several grants for further develop the ideas.
Project Results:
During the third year we aimed to further develop the concept of CEREHA - Centre of Excellence for Research on Environment, Health and Aging to be an inter- and multi-disciplinary centre led by MIGAL. We have advanced CEREHA’s presence as the most important research initiative of the Galilee region in Northern Israel, and succeeded to much further develop the European and International relationships. It is obvious that with the researchers recruited and the new laboratories CEREHA became an internationally known research institute, which is capable of initiating and performing excellent interrelated studies in environment, health and aging. MIGAL - Galilee Research Institute became more established in Israel and the Minister of Science, Technology and Space visited twice with their staff, and the Minister of Agriculture paid visits to MIGAL and is matching funds for research activities.
A lot of attention was paid to the objective of recruiting funds for the sustainability of CEREHA, and although the budget for Israel was not yet approved, it seems that this objective was achieved!
The developing of the CEREHA Centre's researcher activities in the last year relied on collaboration with our associated partners from the European institutes. As a result of the secondments during the last year to Novartis - Italy, University of Copenhagen - Denmark, University of Wageningen - Nederland, Wayne University in Detroit, USA, and Ernst-Moritz-Arndt Universität Greifswald-Germany of several researchers, this began to be translated into active collaboration, with the objective to keep and enhance the excellence of research groups operating at MIGAL. It was translated into several joint proposals that were submitted to Horizon 2020 and other international foundations, as well as to the Ministry of Infrastructure, Energy and Water and the Ministry of Science, Technology and Space with JRC and ENEA in Italy. The researchers at MIGAL submitted proposals to the following Foundations: Ministry of Science, Technology and Space; Ministry of Health; Ministry of Agriculture; Ministry of Economy. Several applications were submitted to the GIF (German Israel Fund), to Israel Science Fund, and to many additional entities such as the Israel cancer Association.
During this 3rd year we continue purchasing equipment (according to the project needs of the new recruiting researchers, invested in renovation the laboratory for hosting the new recruited researchers at Tel-Hai Industrial Park, including investment in upgrading the animal-house (in some cases with matching funds from the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labour.
The third year can be specified as a year of advancing international relationships and collaboration. The contacts with the associated partners were tightened and more researchers from the EU universities are in contacts with MIGAL’s researchers.
During this year, as a result of the intention to become more international, we organise two workshops in Europe – in Wageningen, Nederland, and in Greifswald, Germany, and additional scientist from other countries attended – Italy, Spain, Belgium, Serbia, France and Switzerland. This resulted activities in preparing new proposals and collaborative work. These visits also will enhance the Agro-Biomedical hub in the Galilee. The Hub will serve as a home for applied researchers, clinicians, CRO and regulatory experts, entrepreneurs, start-ups, growers and consumer companies specializing in functional foods, food supplements, nutraceuticals, novel botanical therapeutics and related agro-tech technologies with special focus on Natural Products and Metabolic Engineering. The hub, as part of MIGAL, is located in one of the world's most developed agro regions.
Many conferences and workshops were organised in which scientists from Israel and many countries in the world participated, which advance the scientific status of MIGAL.
Potential Impact:
CEREHA - Centre of Excellence for Research on Environment, Health and Aging is structured as an inter- and multidisciplinary-centre led by MIGAL Galilee Research Institute. This is the most important research initiative of the Galilee region in Northern Israel. CEREHA’s main objective is to develop research capacities of international ranking that will initiate and conduct innovative studies linking the fields of environment, health and aging.
CEREHA’s activities are embedded in the existing advanced research conducted at MIGAL. CEREHA recruited researchers to study the aging phenomenon employing biological, medical, environmental, epidemiological and social perspectives from an interdisciplinary perspective. This approach succeeded the creation of an umbrella unifying the inherent fragmentation in scientific fields - chemistry, biology, microbiology, genetics, nutrition, agriculture, physics and computer sciences. This umbrella provides the basis for targeting research to problems related to human health and aging and for developing strong collaborations with seven hospitals in the Galilee region, private industry and public agencies such as Israel’s Ministry of Health.
The CEREHA consortium includes six prestigious research institutions from Denmark, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway and the USA. This forum provides the opportunity to develop productive research partnerships and efficient dissemination of CEREHA’s results. This was translated already to some collaborative research and will further develop in the future.
With the Galilee Biomendical Research Administration (GBRA), initiated in 2013,which is a joint venture of MIGAL and the Israeli Ministry for the Development of the Negev and the Galilee, will plan activities in the Health sector. The GBRA promotes clinical and basic research at seven Galilee medical centres in collaboration with MIGAL scientists, and we plan to support the research activities in hospitals.
CEREHA created a high quality and high visibility Centre that encompasses research on health and the environment in relation to aging. The knowledge exchange with the academic associated- partners has been formulated and transformed into meetings, symposia, and workshops that will have a significant and lasting impact on the aging population in the Galilee and beyond. These activities are an integral part of CEREHA's long-term strategy to raise the research and innovation profile of the Galilee – Israel’s northern peripheral region.
Our ecosystem supports entrepreneurship, strong collaborations and encourages interactions between academia and industry. The leveraging of public and private sector resources fosters ties and enhances commercial growth. We combine strong academic research with extensive commercial experience providing a valuable bridge that enables our researchers to become entrepreneurs. Since the CEREHA project has been initiated we have established commercial agreements with several industry partners including global companies such as ICL, NETAFIM, and Merieux NutriSciences, which has a significant presence in our main building. In addition, we have several early R&D translational research projects executed in collaboration with industry.
We will be leading the establishment of an agro-biomedical hub in the Galilee. The hub will serve as a home for applied researchers, agronomists, clinicians, CRO as well as regulatory experts, entrepreneurs, start-ups, growers and consumer companies specializing in functional foods, nutraceuticals, and related agro-tech technologies with special focus on metabolic engineering and precision agriculture.
The sustainability of the Centre depends on the success of the researchers in raising funds from project funded by different agencies, in addition to the support from the Ministry of Science, Technology and Space. Discussions with the Ministry already were advanced and the government is supposed to approve a budget for MIGAL in the coming months.
List of Websites:
www.cereha.eu
1. Publishable summary
CEREHA - Centre of Excellence for Research on Environment, Health and Aging was establish three years ago and was developed as a multi-disciplinary Centre led by MIGAL. The objective of this centre of Excellence is to become an internationally known research institute, which is capable of initiating and performing excellent interrelated studies. During the last three years we succeeded to grow and establish the Centre in Israel and Europe as an advanced research institute, organised workshops in Israel and in Wageningen, (planning additional ones in 2015 in Greifswald and Brussels) and advanced collaborative projects with many European colleagues.
The following is our report for the third year.
1.1 Recruitment Process
We continued recruiting additional two senior researchers in last year, in addition to the six researchers recruited during the first year and another five researchers at the second year. In addition to the six post-docs recruited in the 1st year and six in the second year, we recruited additional four Post-Docs. Some of those recruited personnel already succeeded in receiving funds from competitive grant proposals.
Most of the new recruited personnel, as well as Head of Laboratories, did their research at the new Upper-MIGAL laboratories at Tel-Hai Industrial Park that are very unique and of high standards. The new equipment that was purchased during the CEREHA project, and especially during the last year, enabled high standard research. We are very proud that the CEREHA project enabled us to expand our activities in such a new environment and results in upgrading the research are already seen.
This development enables the recruited researchers achieving at their new labs the excellence we are aiming at and ensure the sustainability of the CEREHA Centre of Excellence. It also provided the suitable conditions to train students from our associated-partners’ universities and also Danziger high-school students who were taught biotechnological procedures. Dr Itamar Yadid, Head of the Microbial Metabolic Pathways Research Laboratory in MIGAL and one of the CEREHA researchers is mentoring a group of young students from a nearby high school who are developing a Gluten detection kit. He is mentoring them at the new Tel-Hai laboratories and assisting them in the preparation to a prestigious science contest that was held in Boston, USA. This activity supports the regional development of the Galilee and in this respect the CEREHA project impacts also the young population in the area.
Secondments
During the third year several MIGAL researchers visited colleagues from the associated partners' universities (including Wayne University in Detroit, USA) and industries, and several colleagues sent their students to do work at MIGAL’s laboratories. At our meetings and conferences several colleagues came to the Galilee to lectures. In addition, we performed a workshop in Wageningen University in the Nederland that was very successful with 49 participants (from MIGAL, WUR and Spain, Italy, UK, Serbia and Belgium). We performed a workshop in Greifswald on 4-6th of November 2015, and the final conference of CEREHA in Brussels, November 26th, 2015. As a result, several collaborative proposals were already developed and submitted to competitive foundations and some are under work for the Horizon 2020 Calls in 2016 and 2017. In addition, many ideas were exchanged and some additional joint projects are expected, since the relations with our associate partners are strengthening.
1.2 Management
We had many contacts and discussions with our colleagues from the EU universities, as well as with Novartis and industries in the fields that CEREHA is advancing. Our SAC colleagues arrived in Israel and we had very fruitful discussions and exchanging ideas on finding ways to recruit additional researchers, as well as presenting the outcomes. These good contacts led to bring students from Europe to MIGAL as well as doing some work at the EU institutes. It also established the way to sustain CEREHA after the end of the FP7 project.
There are regular meetings of the MIGAL administration staff (CEO; CFO; coordinator; Chief Scientists; Prof Litaor and administrator), discussing steps of implementation, budget & plans. Somce of the Scientific Advisory Committee is scheduled to meet again at the end of November 2015 (during the workshop in Brussels). We establish contacts with industries, both in Israel and abroad, and are planning implementing the MIGAL results in the future.
1.3 Workshops and Conferences at CEREHA
At the third year we organised the following events:
a. Bio-Medicine 5th conference which was held on Tuesday, 10/08/14, at Kibbutz Gonen, Israel
b. Nutrition Promoting Health conference that was held on 26/10/14 at Kiryat Shmona. Around 270 participants attended the conference from all parts of Israel.
c. Examining a new gene-based approach for the selective elimination of alloreactive T cells and prevention of graft-versus-host disease. Conference with Galilee Hospitals, 26/02/2015, Kibbutz Gonen, Israel.
d. Microbiology 2015 – Environment and Health, March 29-31, 2015, Kibbutz Hagoshrim, Israel
e. Workshop for MIGAL’s Researchers and ICT industries, 16/04/2015
f. Wageningen workshop at Wageningen University 9-12 September, 2015
g. Greifswald workshop at Greifswald University, 4-6 November 2015
Planned:
h. Final CEREHA Conference, to take place in Brussels, Belgium.
Additional important activities included a visit of the Ministries and staff of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Space, and a visit from the Chief Scientist of the Ministry of Agriculture, the Director of the Ministry of Economics and his staff of Strategy, and several of the Mayors of the region.
In addition, the activity that has been started in 2013 regarding combining Biotechnology, Agriculture and Environment, developed very well with the aims of CEREHA, and involves two Parliament Members - Erel Margalit and Hamed Omar. This activity will broaden the scope of CEREHA to FUNCTIONAL FOODS in the Galilee, and several meetings with the municipalities’ chairpersons and many Galilee People took place.
1.4 Purchasing equipment and renovation of the laboratory for the new recruited researchers
We continued the process of purchasing the equipment needed to upgrade the research at the CEREHA Centre, focusing on the needs of the newly-recruited researchers. It was a long process since the approval of additional budget for purchasing equipment was in 2015 and we followed all regulation concerning publishing procurements and calls.
1.5 Research collaboration and submitted proposals
As a result of the visits and meetings with our colleagues from Europe several proposals were submitted and some mutual work is developing. A list of cooperation with European researchers is enclosed.
As part of the new Galilee initiative of establishing an Agro-Biomedical Hub in the Galilee, GABRA has established close contacts with leading agro-bio companies in Israel aiming at performing clinical trials with their natural products. Such steps are critical in establishing "Health Claims" for the products according to the requirements of the international regulatory authorities (i.e. FDA, EMEA).
1.6 Publicity and newsletters
During the third CEREHA’s year the researchers at MIGAL published many articles in journals. From the academic point of view the researchers had several successes in receiving grants for further development of projects
We published an additional newsletter that was distributed on the CEREHA web-site to the CEREHA's partners in Europe as well as to a large audience that are interested in our work.
CEREHA was presented in several occasions to the public, through lectures, conferences and exhibitions, newsletters, newspapers publications, news in radio and TV in Israel and abroad. CEREHA and MIGAL’s research work were presented in many occasions in Israel, Italy (JRC-Ispra), Nederland (Wageningen workshop), Croatia (NETWORC H2O), Belgium (Brussels), Germany (Greifswald, workshop), Spain (Barcelona and Zaragoza), Ukraine (Kiev) USA (Detroit), Malta (Malta), UK (Peterborough), and Portugal (Aviero).
Researchers at MIGAL submitted several patents and were very active in developing projects with industries, receiving several grants for further develop the ideas.
Project Results:
During the third year we aimed to further develop the concept of CEREHA - Centre of Excellence for Research on Environment, Health and Aging to be an inter- and multi-disciplinary centre led by MIGAL. We have advanced CEREHA’s presence as the most important research initiative of the Galilee region in Northern Israel, and succeeded to much further develop the European and International relationships. It is obvious that with the researchers recruited and the new laboratories CEREHA became an internationally known research institute, which is capable of initiating and performing excellent interrelated studies in environment, health and aging. MIGAL - Galilee Research Institute became more established in Israel and the Minister of Science, Technology and Space visited twice with their staff, and the Minister of Agriculture paid visits to MIGAL and is matching funds for research activities.
A lot of attention was paid to the objective of recruiting funds for the sustainability of CEREHA, and although the budget for Israel was not yet approved, it seems that this objective was achieved!
The developing of the CEREHA Centre's researcher activities in the last year relied on collaboration with our associated partners from the European institutes. As a result of the secondments during the last year to Novartis - Italy, University of Copenhagen - Denmark, University of Wageningen - Nederland, Wayne University in Detroit, USA, and Ernst-Moritz-Arndt Universität Greifswald-Germany of several researchers, this began to be translated into active collaboration, with the objective to keep and enhance the excellence of research groups operating at MIGAL. It was translated into several joint proposals that were submitted to Horizon 2020 and other international foundations, as well as to the Ministry of Infrastructure, Energy and Water and the Ministry of Science, Technology and Space with JRC and ENEA in Italy. The researchers at MIGAL submitted proposals to the following Foundations: Ministry of Science, Technology and Space; Ministry of Health; Ministry of Agriculture; Ministry of Economy. Several applications were submitted to the GIF (German Israel Fund), to Israel Science Fund, and to many additional entities such as the Israel cancer Association.
During this 3rd year we continue purchasing equipment (according to the project needs of the new recruiting researchers, invested in renovation the laboratory for hosting the new recruited researchers at Tel-Hai Industrial Park, including investment in upgrading the animal-house (in some cases with matching funds from the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labour.
The third year can be specified as a year of advancing international relationships and collaboration. The contacts with the associated partners were tightened and more researchers from the EU universities are in contacts with MIGAL’s researchers.
During this year, as a result of the intention to become more international, we organise two workshops in Europe – in Wageningen, Nederland, and in Greifswald, Germany, and additional scientist from other countries attended – Italy, Spain, Belgium, Serbia, France and Switzerland. This resulted activities in preparing new proposals and collaborative work. These visits also will enhance the Agro-Biomedical hub in the Galilee. The Hub will serve as a home for applied researchers, clinicians, CRO and regulatory experts, entrepreneurs, start-ups, growers and consumer companies specializing in functional foods, food supplements, nutraceuticals, novel botanical therapeutics and related agro-tech technologies with special focus on Natural Products and Metabolic Engineering. The hub, as part of MIGAL, is located in one of the world's most developed agro regions.
Many conferences and workshops were organised in which scientists from Israel and many countries in the world participated, which advance the scientific status of MIGAL.
Potential Impact:
CEREHA - Centre of Excellence for Research on Environment, Health and Aging is structured as an inter- and multidisciplinary-centre led by MIGAL Galilee Research Institute. This is the most important research initiative of the Galilee region in Northern Israel. CEREHA’s main objective is to develop research capacities of international ranking that will initiate and conduct innovative studies linking the fields of environment, health and aging.
CEREHA’s activities are embedded in the existing advanced research conducted at MIGAL. CEREHA recruited researchers to study the aging phenomenon employing biological, medical, environmental, epidemiological and social perspectives from an interdisciplinary perspective. This approach succeeded the creation of an umbrella unifying the inherent fragmentation in scientific fields - chemistry, biology, microbiology, genetics, nutrition, agriculture, physics and computer sciences. This umbrella provides the basis for targeting research to problems related to human health and aging and for developing strong collaborations with seven hospitals in the Galilee region, private industry and public agencies such as Israel’s Ministry of Health.
The CEREHA consortium includes six prestigious research institutions from Denmark, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway and the USA. This forum provides the opportunity to develop productive research partnerships and efficient dissemination of CEREHA’s results. This was translated already to some collaborative research and will further develop in the future.
With the Galilee Biomendical Research Administration (GBRA), initiated in 2013,which is a joint venture of MIGAL and the Israeli Ministry for the Development of the Negev and the Galilee, will plan activities in the Health sector. The GBRA promotes clinical and basic research at seven Galilee medical centres in collaboration with MIGAL scientists, and we plan to support the research activities in hospitals.
CEREHA created a high quality and high visibility Centre that encompasses research on health and the environment in relation to aging. The knowledge exchange with the academic associated- partners has been formulated and transformed into meetings, symposia, and workshops that will have a significant and lasting impact on the aging population in the Galilee and beyond. These activities are an integral part of CEREHA's long-term strategy to raise the research and innovation profile of the Galilee – Israel’s northern peripheral region.
Our ecosystem supports entrepreneurship, strong collaborations and encourages interactions between academia and industry. The leveraging of public and private sector resources fosters ties and enhances commercial growth. We combine strong academic research with extensive commercial experience providing a valuable bridge that enables our researchers to become entrepreneurs. Since the CEREHA project has been initiated we have established commercial agreements with several industry partners including global companies such as ICL, NETAFIM, and Merieux NutriSciences, which has a significant presence in our main building. In addition, we have several early R&D translational research projects executed in collaboration with industry.
We will be leading the establishment of an agro-biomedical hub in the Galilee. The hub will serve as a home for applied researchers, agronomists, clinicians, CRO as well as regulatory experts, entrepreneurs, start-ups, growers and consumer companies specializing in functional foods, nutraceuticals, and related agro-tech technologies with special focus on metabolic engineering and precision agriculture.
The sustainability of the Centre depends on the success of the researchers in raising funds from project funded by different agencies, in addition to the support from the Ministry of Science, Technology and Space. Discussions with the Ministry already were advanced and the government is supposed to approve a budget for MIGAL in the coming months.
List of Websites:
www.cereha.eu