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BARD Newsbites

Dear colleagues and friends,

As we approach the end of the year, we would like to take this opportunity to keep you updated on recent activity and to look at the future long-term plans. The pandemic has caused disorder and pain for almost everyone around the globe. Our heart goes out to all who were hurt by COVID-19. This situation has slowed the progress of many research projects which are only now resuming their original pace.

We hope that 2021 and the relentless efforts to develop an effective vaccine will help society regain normalcy and all Ag R&D activities will safely resume. Meanwhile, this year we were able to complete our 40-year evaluation process. We were proud to showcase BARD’s achievements and present them to many different key stockholders. We celebrated this important landmark on a very humble virtual event featured on this newsletter.

We hope that upcoming year 2021, will allow us to better shed light on different accomplishments of BARD-funded research and researchers. In this issue, we are introducing (i) a metagenomic approach for characterization of the viral community composition (virome) associated with wastewater reclamation processes, (ii) using big-data analysis (based on remote sensing imageries) to build decision-support applications to help growers cope with climate shifts and (iii)  short interview with a talented young Va’adia-BARD postdoctoral fellow who is studying the role of different agricultural practices on natural enemies at the department on integrative biology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Furthermore, we would like to draw your attention to our B-Lever call for proposals – this program connects academia-to-industry in a unique fashion.

Finally, on behalf of the BARD team, I would like to wish you a Happy and Healthy New Year!
 
Prof. Yoram Kapulnik
BARD's Executive Director

Funding Opportunities

Workshops & Fellowships

Last call to apply:

Postdoctoral Fellowship
Senior Research Fellowship 
Graduate Student Fellowship
Workshops

Academia-to-industry 

The B-lever academia-to-industry program aims to help researchers in their path to commercialization. If you are an investigator considering  commercializing and need a partner in planning how to go-to-market and fund your project this is your opportunity.

BARD 40-Years of Impact

An online session summed the BARD 40-year external review process. This session highlighted the importance of international R&D and acknowledged several outstanding projects.

Several high-ranking key officials spoke at this session including Mr. Alon Schuster, Israeli Minister of Agriculture & Rural Development, Dr. Scott Hutchins, Deputy Under Secretary, USDA Research, Education, and Economics Mission, the honorable Mr. David M. Friedman, U.S. Ambassador to Israel and Dr. Chavonda Jacobs-Young, Administrator, ARS & Acting USDA Chief Scientist.

Participants spoke of the important role of U.S.-Israel Agricultural R&D partnership fostered by BARD and the need to support high quality agricultural R&D to ensure food security.

 Outstanding Aquaculture Research

Prof. Zohar’s research has enabled high-value commercial fish species such as Mediterranean seabream, European seabass (bronzino), salmon, and striped bass to be grown through hatchery-based aquaculture. This has resulted in an estimated $12 billion in economic growth.

Strengthening U.S.-Israel R&D

The U.S. and Israel sign a scientific and technological cooperation agreement to expand binational foundations, paving the way for enhanced bilateral cooperation in science, agriculture, and technology. Both sides also took steps to ensure BARD remains in force indefinitely.

New Board Member Dr. Michal Levy

Dr. Levy has been appointed by the Israeli Agriculture and Rural Development minister to serve on the BARD board of directors.  Dr. Levy is the Senior Deputy Director-General of Agricultural Innovation at the Israeli Ministry of Agriculture where she helps promote entrepreneurship and innovation in the Israeli Ag-tech industry.

Spotlight on Research

Testing Recycled Water

Safe and sustainable water reuse for irrigation requires the implementation of reliable water reclamation processes to minimize environmental and health risks. Researchers are developing effective monitoring tools for quantitative assessment and characterization of the viral community composition in wastewater.

Big Data to Aid Post-harvest Farming 

Researcher are using big data to build decision-support applications to help growers cope with climate shifts. The  diagnostic approach is based on an analysis of seasonal changes and will give growers a snapshot of environmental conditions and orchard performance.

Va'adia-BARD Postdoctoral Fellow

Dr. Kishinevsky, studying crop pests at the university of Wisconsin-Madison: "When meeting farmers and discussing their problems and being in close contact with extension specialists, I got a comprehensive understanding of how my scientific research can be both sound and applicable".

Partnership

Foundational and Applied Science

USDA NIFA cooperative funding opportunity. A number of  AFRI Foundational Grants have a provision to grant foreign partners up to $150,000 for 3-5 year grants, when such collaborations or subcontracts clearly demonstrate benefits to both United States and Israel (AFRI International Partnerships).

BARD is a competitive funding program that supports collaborative agricultural research in areas of mutual interest to the U.S. and Israel. BARD, P.O. Box 15159 Rishon LeZion 7505101, Israel. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, simply click on the following link to Unsubscribe.