The pillars of the German-Israeli cooperation are the Minerva Foundation, the inter-ministry research partnership between the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), the Federal Ministry of the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU), the Israeli Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) and the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labour (MOITAL), the German-Israeli Foundation for Scientific Research and Development (GIF), the German-Israeli Project Cooperation (DIP) and the Martin-Buber Association, an endowment fund founded in December 2009.