Our grants include funding for research, travel, and undergraduate assistants
Exceptional Returns on Investment
During the first three cycles of our program on the UC Davis campus, 16 total awards representing a $250,000 investment yielded the following results:
- More than $4 million in follow-on grants, a 16-fold multiplier for every dollar we spent
- Fifty-eight publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals
- Eighteen early-career scientists trained: masters of science students, doctoral students, and postdoctoral researchers
We will continue to track the results of our awards.
Generous supporters have allowed us to maintain an appropriate funding rate to meet the strong and growing demand for our program. At UC Davis, the number of submission proposals has grown from 10 in our first call in 2017 to 55 in 2026.
Awardees represent all major Israeli universities and research centers, as well as a very broad swath of the sciences: from mathematics to medicine, nanotechnology to neurobiology, engineering to agriculture.
How Projects are Selected
Our grant cycles begin when a participating California university sends out a call for proposals, emailed to all faculty on its campus. At the same time, that call for proposals is circulated to all research institutions in Israel.
Each team of collaborators must complete a short application about their proposed project. The evaluation of proposals is done by the California university. Each application is sent for review and feedback by faculty with expertise in the specific area of research. A committee of senior faculty representing a broad array of STEM fields reviews the applications and input from experts before selecting the top proposals. Projects are reviewed and scored using a rubric based on scientific merit, with preference given to teams that have not worked together before.
“This opportunity is fantastic both for the science and the cultural appreciation it supports.”
Dr. Magali Billen, Earth and Planetary Sciences, UCD