In 1997 the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) established a new pillar of German-Israeli scientific cooperation with the aim of funding joint projects in highly competitive areas of academic research. There are no limitations regarding the topics chosen, and involvement of industry is possible and desirable.
The funding by the BMBF requires that recipients contribute an equal amount to the running cost from their own resources. In addition, the BMBF supports major scientific investments in the first year.
Projects within this program are selected through an annual call for proposals and are funded for up to five years, contingent on mid-term evaluation. Projects from the whole range of academic research including the human and social sciences are eligible.
The program aims at supporting excellent and highly competitive research on an international level. Selected projects must be based on a genuine German-Israeli cooperation. Proposals have to provide a thorough description of the cooperative elements of the project and the added value resulting from it. A part of the funding will always be allocated to the German partner.
Eligible for the submission of proposals are the six Israeli universities and the Weizmann Institute. These will, within their organizations, invite scientists to submit proposals for projects involving cooperation with a German partner and decide on those proposals to be submitted to the BMBF.
Each of the seven institutions can submit up to two proposals; the deadline of applications: 31 March.
The volume of finance requested for each project should be in the order of 255.000 EUR per year. Proposals in the human and social sciences can be sizably less. Finance may include running cost (staff, travel and material cost). Investment are treated separately. Funding is in principle complementary, the contribution by the Israeli institution and the BMBF grant should strictly match. The finance plan must state the institutional resources available to the project and identify the additional needs. If a project contains several Israeli research groups a financial plan for each group has to be prepared, as well as a financial plan for each German partner involved. Industrial partners participate at their own expenses. The Israeli side and German side may apply for major research investments only for the first year of the project. Investment funding will not exceed a maximum of 255 000 EUR.
The administrative and legal framework of the German-Israeli Project Cooperation rests on terms agreed between the Federal Republic of Germany and the State of Israel. BMBF has charged the International Bureau (IB) of the DLR (German Aerospace Center) with responsibility for the administration of the program and the guidance of applicants.