Israel Active

Four projects involving companies from both Israel and Brazil will receive a total investment of $7.5 million from the countries’ innovation agencies. The projects involve crop substrates, thermal energy, power sensors and vehicle analytics.

The private research University of Tulsa in Oklahoma and Israeli cybersecurity foundry Team8 have partnered to a joint 4-year PhD program focusing on cyber research and development. The course will accept 10 students a year, funded by the University and Tulsa’s George Kaiser Family Foundation.

The Arava region of Southern Israel (including Eilat) is on target by 2020 to be 100% powered by solar energy during daylight hours. And at $0.06 per kilowatt, the cost of solar energy is less than the cost of natural gas. The challenge now is to extend this to the whole of Israel.

One of the Israeli startups exhibiting at Tel Aviv’s FoodTechIL was Zero Egg, with its plant-based alternative for eggs. It tastes, looks and functions like a real egg. It can be used to make omelets, “scrambled egg”, cakes, pasta and sauces without using eggs.  

Israeli startup MeaTech 3D is developing technology for bioprinting meat using stem cells. It expects to achieve a viable prototype within a year. Meanwhile, MeaTech 3D has merged with Israel’s Ophectra Real Estate & Investments.

"Albert Einstein: Life in Four Dimensions," by The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, is currently showing at the World Expo Museum in Shanghai China. It includes handwritten documents, original pictures, personal objects and scientific theorems. The exhibition will move to Beijing at the end of October.

Israeli startup Dooblo provides mobile survey software for the market research industry. Its SurveyToGo product reduces the cost of paper-based surveys but vastly increases quality. Dooblo is used in over 100 countries and has just received an investment from California’s Anacapa.

Israeli cybersecurity startup Odix (registered as Operations & Data Integrity) has been awarded a 2 million euro grant from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program. Odix’s technology disarms different malware, including ransomware.

The transceivers and active optical cables from Israel’s DustPhotonics enable super fast connections between servers in data centers. DustPhotonics has just received $25 million in a funding round led by Intel Capital.

Israel’s Enlight Renewable Energy has inaugurated its new 104.5 MW wind farm in Kovačica, Serbia. It is Serbia’s largest wind farm and will supply electricity to 68,000 households. As reported here previously Enlight has built wind farms in Ireland and in Israel’s Golan.