The Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies, Israel
The Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies (JIIS) is an independent, non-profit organization which acts as a bridge between the academic and the practical. Founded in 1978 and maintaining a balance of highly qualified academics and practitioners, the JIIS provides a constant flow of relevant, accurate, and in-depth data, policy papers, and professional analyses for use by decision-makers, researchers, and the general public. Its studies serve as a valuable resource for a variety of governmental bodies, public institutions, and civil organizations.
Originally established at the initiative of Jerusalem’s Mayor Teddy Kollek, the JIIS has remained a totally independent and non-partisan organization. Since 1981 it has worked in close partnership with the Charles H. Revson Foundation in New York, which supports many of its initiatives and major projects; it also has benefited from the support of a number of other large private and public institutions, and works in cooperation with several government ministries.
Industrial Innovation Policy Group:
The Industrial Innovation Policy Group (IDPG), which is part of the JIIS began its work in 1984, in an effort to conceptualize and identify appropriate public policies for generating high levels of industrial/technological growth. The group was involved in several major projects including an evaluation of the MAGNET program which centers on encouraging industrial pre-competitive collaborative R&D; a study on the operation and functions of the semi-public Technology Centers in Israel; and a study on the role of consultants and the innovation patterns of the SME sector. In addition, the IDPG took part in several EC funded research projects in the past. In FP4, the group participated in the IMT (Innovation Management Techniques) project: PRIISME and ACCESS. The results of these projects was the launching of a new SME support program funded by the Ministry of Industry and Trade that helps SMEs improve innovation processes through IMT consultation; TSER (Targeted Socio-Economic Research); IFISE a project that analyzed Israeli financing schemes for innovation and incubation schemes and their applicability to Italy; and INCUPUB, which examined the role of technology policy in incubating European new technology based firms.
The group is initiated the the Bio-link project, also of the European commissions FP5, studying best incubation practices through a collaboration program between 5 bio-incubators in Europe and Israel. The IDPG was member of the FP6 J-RIS project (2005-2008) to define a Regional Innovation Strategy for Jerusalem. The IPDG will be responsible on coordinating all the research activity of the TARGET program.
Dr. Dan Kaufman has been a senior researcher at the Industrial Development Policy Group since 1991. In the past three years his main research projects concern the development of regional innovation policies. These include a research on the Jerusalem biotechnology cluster, mapping the biotechnology activities of the Hebrew University and the FP5 ‘Biolink’ project. Dan was also involved in the FP5 ‘IFISE’ project where he conducted a research on the Israeli financial support schemes for SMEs. Dr. Kaufmann was the coordinator of the European J-RIS project (2005-2008) to formulate an innovation strategy for the Jerusalem region. Currently, he is leading a project evaluating the incubator program of Israel. Another Mr. Dan Kaufman will carry out the work together with a research assistant hired for the project. Dr. Kaufmann will coordinate the research activities that will be conducted in the TARGET program.
Dr. Gil Avnimelech is a lecture and researcher at the Faculty of Business Administration at Ono Academic College. In 1999-2000 he participated in the research project conducted under the Targeted Socio-Economic Research Program (TSER) of the EU. Between 2001 and 2006 as a member of the European IFISE, ESTER, and VentureFun projects he studied the development of the venture capital industry in Israel and design policy implication to other European countries. Dr. Avnimelech, is recognized as an expert to venture capital, high tech cluster and entrepreneurship policies and his recent research activities are focused on Targeted R&D policies, VC policy, and cluster development policy. His activities in the TARGET project involve analysis of the targeted policy toward biotechnology at North Carolina and at Israel.
