During Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s trade mission to Israel recently, the state’s Water Council signed two agreements to increase collaboration and establish new partnerships between Wisconsin and Israel.

An agreement with the Zuckerberg Institute for Water Research at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev seeks to establish the first National Science Foundation center in Israel as a first step toward collaboration on water-related applied research.

New technologies to come out of this collaboration would be introduced to the global marketplace through Wisconsin’s National Science Foundation-sponsored Industry/University Cooperative Research Center for Water Equipment and Policy.

The other agreement authorizes the Water Council and the Israel Innovation Authority (IIA) to develop a new research partnership in which Israeli and Wisconsin water technology startup companies will collaborate on piloting and developing new applications for the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District (MMSD) and other Wisconsin water utilities.

MMSD will contribute $100,000 in research funds to be matched by the IIA. Israeli startups will come to the US to commercialize their products for the North American market. MMSD will provide the facilities and will have some preferential access to any resulting technology that is successfully piloted.

“These partnerships will strengthen the sector in both countries, and are expected to open new markets to water technology companies in Wisconsin and Israel,” said Walker.

“The Zuckerberg Institute is pleased to be partnering with the Water Council to increase our collaboration opportunities, share our research and explore commercialization opportunities for our innovation,” says Zuckerberg Institute Director Prof. Noam Weisbrod. “While we share different water challenges, we look forward to complementing each other in addressing water quality issues.”

(via Israel21c)

[Photo: Israel21c]