The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) has launched an initiative with the Israel National Cyber Directorate (INCD) to fortify the cyber resilience of critical infrastructure in both countries with emerging technologies.
The Israel-U.S. Binational Industrial Research and Development (BIRD) Cyber program will be managed by the BIRD Foundation.
What is the BIRD Foundation?
The BIRD Foundation's mission is to stimulate, promote and support industrial research and development of mutual benefit to the U.S. and Israel, according to the Foundation’s website. The BIRD Foundation was established in 1977 to help fund startups and established organizations, match US and Israeli companies and cover up to half of project development costs up to $1 million. BIRD takes no equity in the companies.
This initiative extends BIRD’s reach to cybersecurity-related emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and analytics.
BIRD has put out the call for project proposals that would involve cooperative efforts between two companies, or between a company and a university or research institution — one from the US and one from Israel — leading to demonstrations and pilot implementation of innovative technologies in one of the following areas:
- Secured architecture for protecting core operational processes
- Real-time risk assessment solutions for small-to-medium sized airports or sea ports
- Resilience center pilots for small and medium sized businesses and enterprises
- Advanced data fusion and analytics
Seeking Project Proposals
The deadline for submitting executive summaries to this new Call for Proposals is November 15, 2022. Projects will be selected for award in March 2023. A full description of submission requirements can be found on the BIRD Foundation website.
Dr. Eitan Yudilevich, Executive Director of the BIRD Foundation, described the organization's mission:
“BIRD Cyber provides an additional capability for DHS and INCD to expand cooperative research and development and support high-impact cybersecurity solutions for resilient critical infrastructure. We are eager to expand upon the success of BIRD HLS with a new cyber-focused program to foster strategic partnerships in the areas of cybersecurity and emerging technologies.”
