The Israel – U.S. Binational Industrial Research and Development (BIRD)
Foundation announced on January 13 three awards for collaborative projects
totaling $2.3 million to develop advanced technologies for the homeland
security mission. The BIRD Homeland Security (HLS) program is a joint
initiative funded by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science
and Technology Directorate (S&T) and the Israel Ministry of
Public Security (MOPS).
“S&T’s participation
in the BIRD HLS program is another great example of ways we seek innovative
solutions to homeland security challenges,” said DHS Senior Official Performing
the Duties of the Under Secretary for Science and Technology William Bryan.
“The results of these projects should provide positive results for both DHS and
MOPS.”
The BIRD Foundation
is a unique U.S.-Israeli partnership that accelerates cooperation between U.S.
and Israeli companies, academia and other research institutions in a wide range
of technology sectors to foster strategic partnerships between companies in
both countries for the purpose of joint product development. The program funds
up to 50 percent of the combined project budget, up to $1 million per project,
and works with companies to identify potential strategic partners and
facilitate introductions.
“Expanding the BIRD
portfolio to the broader homeland security mission has been a welcome
addition,” said Dr. Eitan Yudilevich, executive director of the BIRD
Foundation. “We are pleased this new cycle helped recruit new companies to the
BIRD ecosystem while continuing to build our strong working relationship with
DHS and MOPS.”
The 2019 HLS awardees
include:
- Blue White Robotics (Tel Aviv, Israel) and Easy Aerial (New York, New York) to develop a multi-mission, multi-type homeland security HLS drone command and control capability.
- S.H. Goren Management and Innovation (Emek Hefer, Israel) and 3AM (Buffalo, New York) to develop a personal device for firefighters that provides a real-time indoor location tracking of people.
- Cawamo (Hod Hasharon, Israel) and LiveView Technologies (Orem, Utah) to develop a fully turn-key artificial intelligence-based analytics video security solution for remote sites.
Source: DHS
By Loren Blinde
January 14, 2020
