$1.5 million grants up for grabs in U.S.-Israel cybersecurity collaboration
$1.5 million grants up for grabs in U.S.-Israel cybersecurity collaboration
The goal of BIRD Cyber is to foster strategic partnerships to improve the cyber resilience of both countries.
The Israel-U.S. Binational Industrial Research and Development (BIRD) Foundation, the Israel National Cyber Directorate (INCD), and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) have issued a new BIRD Cyber Call for Proposals, aimed to address cybersecurity challenges of mutual interest to the United States and Israel.
The program will support project collaboration between American and Israeli companies, or a company and a university or research institute, resulting in demonstrations and pilot implementations of their solutions.
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Tal Kelem, Director, BIRD Cyber Lead, and Jaron Lotan, Executive Director of BIRD
(Photo: Eyal Toueg/Yanai Yechiel)
Project submissions should relate to technologies being developed in the following areas:
- Cyber protection for legacy medical devices;
- BGP hijacking remediation;
- Online face image self-enrollment compatible with international standards;
- Threat hunting on encrypted traffic; and,
- Human-machine (AI) interface tools for cybersecurity.
The goal of BIRD Cyber is to foster strategic partnerships to improve the cyber resilience of both countries. DHS and INCD have identified pressing cybersecurity needs that are not adequately addressed by the market, and therefore invite U.S. and Israeli companies to propose solutions.
“The BIRD Cyber program is a vital initiative that directly contributes to Israel's national security,” said Gaby Portnoy, Director General of INCD. “By fostering collaboration between U.S. and Israeli companies, we are harnessing the power of innovation to address the complex cyber threats facing our nations. Through BIRD Cyber we aim to support the development of cutting-edge solutions that will strengthen both countries’ cyber resilience and protect their infrastructure and resources.”
BIRD Cyber will provide grants of up to $1.5 million per project, funding up to half of the combined research and development budget. The deadline for submission of Executive Summaries is January 29, 2025, and projects will be approved in May.
"We are pleased to see the progress achieved by the grantees of the first BIRD Cyber program and honored that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Israel National Cyber Directorate have entrusted BIRD to lead another BIRD Cyber program focused on critical topics that will strengthen the cyber resilience of both nations," added Jaron Lotan, Executive Director of BIRD.
The BIRD Foundation promotes and facilitates collaboration between American and Israeli companies across a variety of tech sectors. The Foundation shares the risk involved in the projects it funds, requiring no repayment if the project fails to reach the commercialization stage.
