Remarks for BIRD Foundation 30th Event
Enav Cultural Center, 71 Ibn Gvirol Street, Tel Aviv
December 17, 2007

Thank you Dr. Yudilevitch.  Director General Ariav, Dr. Opper, Mr. Stanley, distinguished guests.

I am very proud to congratulate the BIRD Foundation on thirty years of operations.  The track record of the Foundation’s contributions is quite impressive:  with over 740 approved projects during the past three decades, and total investment exceeding $245M, BIRD-funded projects have resulted in an estimated $8 billion worth of commerce.

The BIRD Foundation is indeed one of the most successful bi-national programs in existence anywhere in the world.   By requiring bilateral participation, BIRD enhances relations between our private sectors.  By insisting on recipient matching funding, BIRD assures that the business community is a full partner, fully-committed to each and every proposed project.  By targeting commercialization of a product, BIRD works to move innovative technology to the market place, which ultimately benefits Israelis and Americans by expanding their selection of goods and services and boosting economic growth.

BIRD broke new ground thirty years ago through its unique bi-national approach to supporting highly innovative industrial Research and Development projects between Israeli and U.S. companies.  Its success rate speaks for itself: thirty percent of projects reach profitability sufficient to repay their BIRD foundation grant -- a percentage well above the norm for venture capital projects.

The BIRD Foundation has also generated a network of contacts among American and Israeli scientists, researchers and entrepreneurs.  These close connections help to advance our shared interests in applied science and innovation by creating strong bonds, professionally and personally, between some of the most creative minds of our two countries.  Through this encouraging of ever-closer cooperation between Israelis and Americans, BIRD continues to pay dividends far deeper than any one year’s return on investment.   But BIRD’s impact extends far beyond bi-lateral U.S.-Israeli relations.

They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. As a result of its remarkable success over these past 30 years, BIRD has become the model par excellence for multi-national R&D cooperation.  The Foundation has inspired similar efforts here in Israel with European partners and in other regions throughout the world.  It provided the impetus for adoption of the TRIDE agreement, combining Jordan, Israel and US in research partnerships.   Indeed, I would like to see a BIRD-model organization focused on Arab-Israeli and Palestinian businesses, to capture and augment the wealth of intellectual capital that is currently under-utilized in those communities, and to create needed jobs and stimulate further economic growth for those groups.  Just this past week I hosted a dinner for leaders of Israeli information technology firms, encouraging them to use their vast resources, financial and human, to stimulate job-growth and economic development in the West Bank.

Impressive as the Foundation’s performance has been, however, we must assure the BIRD Foundation’s capacity to perform into the future.  The value of its $110 million endowment, in inflation-adjusted terms, has diminished markedly.  For the Foundation to continue to be as effective as it has been in the past, it will require additional capital.  In addition, a variety of exciting, new areas of research have emerged in recent years that merit BIRD’s attention, and these will stretch the Foundation’s intellectual capacity.  These include alternative and renewable energy, water technology, homeland security, and nanotechnology, among others.

I am confident these challenges will be successfully met, given the caliber of the BIRD Foundation’s Board and the diligence of its executive management.  Congratulations again on achieving this significant milestone.  I very much look forward to 2017, when we will be celebrating the BIRD Foundation’s 40th anniversary.  Thank you very much, and enjoy your evening.