TEMPUS, a European Union program aimed at supporting higher education in neighboring countries, awarded Israel's Sami Shamoon Academic College of Engineering (SCE) a 1 million Euro grant to teach innovation.

SCE will lead a group of 18 institutions and companies from both within and outside Israel, including Apple's Israeli representative E-Digital, SIT, and the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, Israel's first private college.  

Established in 1990, TEMPUS covers 27 countries in the Western Balkans, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, North Africa and the Middle East.

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and Israel Space Agency (ISA) Director General Zvi Kaplan signed a joint statement to expand cooperation in civil space activities, including in Earth and space science, life sciences, space exploration and other areas of mutual interest.

NASA and ISA identified an expansion of Israeli participation in numerous scientific and educational opportunities including, the Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) education program and use of the International Space Station for Israeli research and educational experiments.

 In January, the two agencies signed a joint statement that recognizes the Israel Network for Lunar Science and Exploration (INLSE) as an affiliate partner with the NASA Lunar Science Institute.

Technion leads almost all European engineering-technology universities in the rankings

 According to Shanghai Jiao Tong University's annual rankings, The Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, was ranked 38th among the world's top universities in technology in 2010, advancing two spots since 2009.

Among the main criteria determining the rankings are the number and quality of scientific publications, as well as the number of leading researchers in the university's field of specialization.

Some 2,000 universities are analyzed each year, and 1,000 enter the ranking.

Professor Elon Lindenstrauss from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Einstein Institute of Mathematics was awarded the prestigious Fields Medal for 2010.

The Fields medal, also referred to as the "mathematics' Nobel Prize," is the world's most important math prize and is awarded once every four years to researchers aged 40 years or under who demonstrate significant mathematical achievements and show great potential for the future.

Professor Lindenstrauss was awarded the prize for work that uses probabilistic and dynamic systems for solving problems in number theory.

A Jerusalem resident, Lindenstrauss is a graduate of the Air Force's elite Talpiot program and has been awarded several prestigious prizes both in Israel and abroad. After receiving his doctorate in mathematics from the Hebrew University, he became a member of Princeton's Institute of Advanced Study and in 2008 received a professorship at the Hebrew University.

In order to encourage large financial services companies and international banks to set up financial R&D centers in Israel, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Industry, Trade, and Labor may pay as much as 50 percent of the workers’ wages at the financial R&D centers for up to five years.

The government will provide 40% of the plan's total budget approved by the Office of the Chief Scientist in the first and second years, 30% in the third and fourth years, and 25% in the fifth year. Projects set up in Israel's periphery in the North and South will be eligible for higher government funding of 50% in the first and second years, 40% in the third and fourth years, and 35% in the fifth year.

The plan is part of the Relative Advantages Plan that will be managed by the Chief Scientist Office and aims to boost the development of an information-intensive financial services industry in Israel.

"This plan is designed to meet the world's need for sophisticated analytical solutions that support the financial industry. Israel has quality manpower with advanced technological infrastructures and good quality higher education," Ministry of Industry, Trade, and Labor director general Sharon Kedmi said.

Storwize Inc., a data compression hardware and software company focused on improving storage, has been acquired by IBM Corp.

Storwize provides real-time data compression technology to help clients reduce physical storage requirements. Its products are usually installed between the network and the storage devices, and compress the data before it reaches the network storage devices.

The company was founded in 2004 by Gal Naor and Jonathan Amit, and though it moved its headquarters to Marlborough, Massachusetts, in 2008, its development center and the majority of its workforce remain in Israel.

IBM has bought a number of Israeli startups in the data storage sector in recent years, including Guardium for $225 million in 2009, FilesX for $80 million in 2008, Diligent Technologies for $165 million in 2008, and XIV for $300 million in 2007 among others.

French digital security company Gemalto bought Israel's Trivnet, one of the leading players in the growing Mobile Financial Services space, enabling mobile payments, mobile commerce, mobile wallet "banking the unbanked", and mobile money transfer. Through Trivnet's system, communications providers can offer their subscribers financial services.

Trivnet formed several impressive collaborations in recent years, including with Amdocs, which invested in the company, and with Telefonica, which introduced it into Spain and Latin America.

Trivnet was founded in 1997 and has offices in Israel, India, Spain and Latin America.

Goldman Sachs projects higher economic growth for Israel in 2011 than Israeli leaders have so far estimated. Goldman Sachs analyst Ahmet Akarli predicts 3.5% real GDP growth for Israel in 2010 and 4.3% growth in 2011.

The Bank of Israel currently predicts 4% growth next year, and the Ministry of Finance predicts less than 4% growth. Israeli economic leaders project lower growth forecasts for the next two years, due to the anticipated impact from the debt crisis in Europe.

Akarli forecasts 2.4% inflation for the full years of 2010 and 2011.

Kesselman and Kesselman PricewaterhouseCoopers in a recent report shows investments in Israeli start-ups rose 21% from the first quarter to $206 million in the second quarter of 2010, and 27% from the corresponding quarter of 2009.

For the first half of 2010, total investments in Israeli start-ups amounted to $376 million, slightly above the $356 million invested in start-ups in the first half of 2009.

The upward trend was led by the medical devices and biotech sectors, while investments in Internet start-ups bounced back to the levels of recent years after low levels of investment in the first quarter of 2010. The data reflects the highest level of investment since 2004 in the life science section, which combines medical devices and biotechnology.

In a joint initiative, Amdocs, which develops billing and customer management relations solutions for telecommunications providers, and US telecommunications giant AT&T are setting up the Amdocs Innovations Center, which will enable Israeli companies to develop products and solutions with Amdocs for AT&T.

The innovations center aims to foster collaboration with telephone, mobile phone and smartphone manufacturers, applications developers, and network equipment makers to expedite the development of next-generation broadband applications for wireline and mobile devices.

As part of AT&T's "Rethink the Possible" program, the company has set up two centers, two in the US and one in Israel, with strategic partners: Ericsson AB, Alcatel Lucent SA, and Amdocs. Full operations are slated to begin before the end of 2010.

A record 1.6 million tourists visited Israel in the first half of 2010, up 39% compared with the first half of 2009 and up 10% compared with the first half of 2008 - the previous record. Like previous months, tourism in June also set a new record with 259,000 tourists visiting, up 24% from 2009 and 8% from June 2008.

The New York-based Travel and Leisure magazine named Jerusalem as the best city in Africa and the Middle East. Readers of the magazine were aksed to respond to a questionnaire which ranked cities according to sights, culture and arts, restaurants and food, people, shopping and value. This was the first time that the city received such a ranking since 2000. Cape Town was ranked in second place and Tel Aviv in third place.

The Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee unanimously approved a bill to establish an economic court separate from the Tel Aviv District Court to deal solely with economic cases.

The bill, which had been suggested by Israel Securities Authority chairman Zohar Goshen, proposes that the economic court will deal with most of the legal proceedings related to criminal, administrative, and civil enforcement of the Securities Law (5768-1968) and the Companies Law (5769-1999).

The economic court's three judges will also handle administrative petitions against rulings by Securities Authority, decisions by the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE), and decisions by the Registrar of Companies.

The bill still requires approval by the Knesset plenum in a second and third reading.

International investors and innovation aficionados are invited to rejoice with the launching of a new publication celebrating Israel's innovative success including a compilation of some of Israel's most revolutionary technological breakthroughs across several industries, including in Cleantech, Agrotech, Life Sciences, IT, Communications, and Homeland Security.

The new brochure, "Israel – Global Center for Breakthrough Innovation," produced by Israel's Investment Promotion Center of the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor, bolsters Israel's position as an innovative powerhouse and a preferred target for foreign direct investment. Israel's innovative professionals are a central focus of the brochure, which emphasizes the country's human capital as the vital component that binds together all the key elements of its success.

The new brochure can be viewed by way of the Invest in Israel web site – Click here

Israel's ECI Telecom has won its largest ever contract, an $800 million deal with British Telecom's Openreach to help establish a large-scale super-fast broadband network in Britain.

ECI will deploy next generation access for up to 18 million households and businesses throughout Britain in the next 3-5 years. Deployment is scheduled to begin in July-August. Openreach, which was created in 2006 to give communications providers equal access to Britain's local access network, plans to invest a further 1 billion pounds ($1.51 billion), or 2.5 billion in total, to extend deployment of fibre-to-the-premise and fibre-to-the-cabinet to around two thirds of Britain by 2015.

ECI supplies communications platforms for carrier and service provider networks. It was acquired by a group of funds led by the Swarth Group for $1.24 billion in 2007 and delisted from Nasdaq.

The Swiss Institute for Management Development (IMD) ranked Israel 17th out of 58 of the world's most economically developed nations in its 2010 World Competitiveness Yearbook, raising it by seven spots from its 2009 ranking.

Israel was also rated first in several of the report's sub-categories. The Israeli economy was considered the most durable in the face of crises, and was ranked No. 1 for its expenditure in research and development as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP). Israel also came in first for the innovative capacity of firms to generate new products, processes and services.

 In the business-efficiency category, Israel scored very high in availability of skilled labor, finance skills, entrepreneurship of managers and venture capital.

The Bank of Israel was also praised, ranking highest among central banks for its efficient functioning, after receiving 8th place in 2009. The Bank of Israel played an important role guarding the Israeli economy from the effects of the global financial crisis. 

The IMD, which is a leading business school located in Lausanne, Switzerland, examines the level of developed nations' competitiveness based on some 330 different parameters.

Israel became the first non-European state to head the EUREKA Network, the leading industrial R&D initiative in Europe and the largest of its kind in the world with investments of 1.5 billion euros every year. Israel's Office of the Chief Scientist head Eli Opper will serve as the organization's chairman.

In recent years, Israel became one of the five most active members in Eureka boasting the same number of projects as much bigger [EU] countries. Out of nearly 300 new projects initiated by Eureka in 2008, 40 involved Israeli companies.

As the head of the pan-European, inter-governmental initiative, Israel has planned five conferences, starting in Tel Aviv in October and culminating in Jerusalem in June 2011.

Eureka was set up in 1985 as a legal framework allowing European companies to collaborate and receive government funding.

Intel Corporation acquired Israeli WiMAX fables semiconductor vendor Comsys Communication and Signal Processing Ltd for $30 million.

Through its purchase of the Herzliya-based company, Intel will gain a stronger market presence in the market for 2G and 3G protocols and files

Comsys was founded in 1994 when it initially produced a PC modem and then gradually changed its focus to develop processors for 3G mobile devices, which it sold to its strategic partner, Texas Instruments Inc.

Comsys' 80 employees will join Intel Israel's R&D centers for wireless communications in Haifa and Petah Tikva.

Israel's Makhteshim Agan, the world's biggest generic agrochemical maker, is acquiring Iowa-based Albaugh, a leading US producer of glyphosate and other generic herbicides, two of Makhteshim's core businesses.

 Albaugh, which was founded in 1979, has six plants in the US, Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina, and a joint venture in China, and its South American sales in Brazil, Argentina, and Chile complement Makhteshim's business in Brazil, Colombia and Ecuador.

The Albaugh acquisition gives Makhteshim a significant presence in North America and South America, low cost production sites, efficient supply chain, and access to large growers in the US Midwest.

Makhteshim Agan is a subsidiary of Koor Industries, which is part of the IDB Holding group. It had sales of $2.2 billion in 2009.

Kamada won U.S. approval for its treatment of Alpha-1 Antitrypsin deficiency (AATD), a lung-damaging condition that is mainly found in Europe and North America.

The Food and Drug Administration approved a liquid version of Kamada's intravenous treatment Glassia, making it the first Israeli company to get U.S. clearance for a drug produced by a biological process rather than a chemical one. Though there are other drugs on the market that treat AATD, Glassia is the only liquid product.

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem was ranked fifth. Altogether, the Weizmann Institute has been ranked second three times, and in first place twice.

The Weizmann Institute, which is home to 2,600 scientists, students, technicians, and supporting staff, has 100 full-time life science researchers, a government budget of $4 million, and 11,873 published papers in the life sciences, with an average of 15.29 citations per paper.

"The Israeli science has a special zest to it, one which we are thrilled to encounter time and time again. Together with Merck Serono, this special zest can create the next blockbuster drug" - Inter-Lab Chief Executive Regine Shevach

Merck Serono SA, Europe's largest biopharmaceutical company, has called on Israeli entrepreneurs and start-ups to collaborate with it through its local R&D center, Inter Lab Ltd.

Merck Serono noted they are looking for unique collaborations across a range of fields, including autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, oncology, and endocrinology to expand its drug pipeline. In addition, the company will focus on the development of commercial drugs from molecules in early stages of development.

Israel's labor market continues to recover from the recession. The Israel National Employment Service reported that the number of unemployed fell 0.7% to 193,800 persons in April 2010 from 195,100 persons in March.

Israeli unemployment is expected to drop to 7% in 2010, from 7.7 percent in 2009. The Bank of Israel expects unemployment to drop to 6.7 percent in 2011.

The number of jobseekers with college degrees fell 2.1% while the number of jobseekers without higher degrees fell 2.8%.

Red Herring, a global media company, included eight Israeli start-ups among its European Top 100 for 2010 in recognition of their innovations and technologies across their respective industries. The eight Israeli companies are attracTV, BriefCam Ltd., MS Tech Ltd., SolarEdge Technologies Ltd., SundaySky, TaKaDu, Trusteer, and Waze.

Red Herring’s Top 100 Europe list has become a mark of distinction for identifying promising new companies and entrepreneurs. Companies are evaluated on quantitative and qualitative criteria, such as financial performance, technology innovation, quality of management, execution of strategy, and integration into their respective industries.

The Swiss Institute for Management Development (IMD) ranked Israel 17^th out of 58 of the world's most economically developed nations in its 2010 World Competitiveness Yearbook, raising it by seven spots from its 2009 ranking.

Israel was also rated first in several of the report's sub-categories. The Israeli economy was considered the most durable in the face of crises, and was ranked No. 1 for its expenditure in research and development as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP). Israel also came in first for the innovative capacity of firms to generate new products, processes and services.

In the business-efficiency category, Israel scored very high in availability of skilled labor, finance skills, entrepreneurship of managers and venture capital.

The Bank of Israel was also praised, ranking highest among central banks for its efficient functioning, after receiving 8th place in 2009. The Bank of Israel played an important role guarding the Israeli economy from the effects of the global financial crisis.  

The IMD, which is a politically independent body, examines the level of developed nations' competitiveness based on some 330 different parameters.

OECD countries unanimously agreed to extend their exclusive membership to Israel following three years of accession negotiations and careful review with respect to its compliance with OECD standards and benchmarks.

The OECD noted that Israel's accession would contribute to OECD work in a number of specific areas. "Israel’s scientific and technological policies have produced outstanding outcomes on a world scale," the OECD said in a statement. 

"Israel's accession to this prestigious club was made possible thanks to responsible and balanced economic policies in recent decades," Minister of Finance Yuval Steinitz said. "These policies included reduction of Israel's debt, maintaining fiscal and development policies, and making the capital market more sophisticated."

Israel's OECD membership is expected to boost the Israeli economy as it is predicted to lead to a stronger flow of foreign investment in the long term. It is also anticipated to lead to a credit upgrade, which would reduce the cost of raising capital for both the government and companies.

The formal accession ceremony will be held at the organization's Paris headquarters on May 27.

"The big picture remains that thanks to its sound macroeconomic and structural fundamentals, the Israelieconomy appears well positioned to recover from the global crisis and return to respectable growth rates earlier than many other EMEA economies," - UBS analyst Reinhard Cluse

UBS raised its growth forecast for Israel to 3.5% from 3% in 2010, following an upsurge in the bank's leading economic indicators for Israel in February. The Swiss bank also reiterated its 3.8% GDP growth forecast for 2011.

UBS said that Israel's leading economic indicators indicate that economic growth will continue into the second quarter. Growth was supported by private and public consumption and by exports.

In late April, the Governor of the Bank of Israel Stanley Fischer had predicted the country's economy would grow 3.7% this year, up from his earlier prediction of 3.5%. He also forecast that unemployment would fall to 7% this year, down from 7.4% in 2009.

Internet giant Google Inc bought Israel's LabPixies, a developer of personalized website gadgets for Google's personalized search page iGoogle, as well as for mobile devices.

Google, which launched activity in Israel in 2005, joins other Internet powerhouses such as Yahoo! Inc, eBay Inc, and Microsoft Corp, which have acquired numerous Israeli start-ups to date. 

Lab Pixies, founded in 2006, will be absorbed by Google Israel, thereby retaining its activity locally.

LabPixies develops software gadgets ranging from calendars, news feeds and to-do lists to entertainment and games, and was one of the first developers of customizable Web gadgets for Google's iGoogle personalized home pages and Android cell phone operating system, as well as for Apple's iPhone.

Swiss drugmaker Roche Holding AG acquired 100% of Israel's Medingo Ltd., the medical innovator of a new semi-disposable insulin patch pump.

The Medingo patches can be stuck on to the skin, without the need for tubes, making it easier for patients to administer insulin.

Roche is the world's No. 2 company in the insulin delivery system global market and competes with Bayer, Johnson & Johnson and Abbott in the areas of pumps and blood glucose monitoring. As part of Roche Diabetes Care, Medingo Ltd. will continue to further develop and produce the insulin patch pump system which will be integrated into Roche Diabetes Care’s insulin delivery portfolio.

Elron Electronics, an Israeli technology holding company, owns 92 percent of Medingo and expects to post a net gain of between $58 million and $81 million from the sale of Medingo.

Deere & Company is buying Israel's Beit Hashita Metal Industries Ltd. (BHC) and intends to retain the majority of BHC's employees, including its general manager.

BHC is a manufacturer of cotton picker repair parts for all makes of equipment and a supplier of cotton picker row units for other equipment manufacturers.

BHC is John Deere's second major investment in Israel. In 2008, Deere acquired irrigation equipment manufacturer Plastro Irrigation Ltd. from Kibbutz Gvat for $245 million. The company is now John Deere Water - Israel Ltd., and operates two factories in Israel. BHC will be John Deere's third manufacturing plant in Israel.

John Deere, which was founded in 1837, is a world leader in providing products and services for agriculture, forestry, construction, landscaping and irrigation. The company also provides financial services and manufactures and markets engines used in heavy equipment.  

The company's three Israeli owners are remaining active in the business, and the company is likely to use this as a base in the country to make further strategic purchases.

"This is another important acquisition for us which represents our first move into the market in Israel where we see opportunities to develop further. Silco is an excellent business with a leading market position and a strong customer base. We are delighted to welcome all of their employees to the Group.," Michael Roney, chief executive of Bunzl, said.

Silco, which is based near Tel Aviv, is a leading supplier of foodservice disposables to a number of different sectors throughout Israel, including restaurants, caterers and redistributors.

Canada's Enablence Technologies Inc, which supplies optical components, is acquiring Israel's Teledata Networks Ltd for $50 million to expand in the global broadband market.

Teledata Networks is a leading provider of products and services enabling telecom companies to migrate to Next Generation networks. Using Teledata's Multi-Service Access Platform and VDSL capabilities Enablence's international customers will be able to evolve their copper networks to fiber.

Teledata has a widely installed base, spanning millions of lines in over 55 countries worldwide, including Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Kazakhstan and South Africa.

Enablence, headquartered in Ottawa, Canada, designs, manufactures and sells optical components, subsystems and systems to a global customer base.

Incoming tourism to Israel enjoyed a new March record in 2010. The Ministry of Tourism reported that 313,000 tourists visited Israel in March, 9% higher than the previous record set in March 2000, when a special millennial tourist campaign led to record numbers of visitors. The number of tourists was 56% higher than in March 2009, and 17% above the March 2008 figure.

During the first three months of 2010, 747,000 tourists visited Israel, a rise of 54% compared with the corresponding period last year, and 15% above the same period in 2008.

"Every additional 10,000 tourists creates 4000 new jobs and generates income of NIS 450 million ($121 million)," Minister of Tourism Stas Misezhnikov said.

Personal computer and printer maker Hewlett Packard decided to hire 200 additional employees for its program development center in Yehud, Israel, increasing its workforce by some 25%. The development center currently has about 850 employees.

HP acquired the development center when it purchased Mercury in 2006. The center has played an important role in the company's growth.

HP also has offices in Raanana, Haifa, Netanya, and Rechovot, as well as a factory in Kiryat Gat.

"Israel has been an important market for TTI for many years due to its significant growth in high-tech and the electronics industry." - TTI CEO and president Paul Andrews

Electronics components maker TTI Inc, a Berkshire Hathaway company, bought Net-Aye Technologies Ltd., a leading specialized interconnect and LED distributor located in Kfar-Saba Israel.