Further Fields

Beside the main focuses of cooperation, almost all natural sciences and technological research areas are part of the bilateral collaboration between Germany and Israel. There is also an intensive cooperation in the field of vocational training.

German-Israeli Programme for Cooperation in Vocational Training

The German-Israeli Programme for Cooperation in Vocational Training, which is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the Israeli Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor (MOITAL), has been in existence since 1969 and is run by InWEnt (Internationale Entwicklung und Weiterbildung gGmbH) on behalf of the BMBF.

In the early years of its existence, the programme mainly focused on enabling individual Israeli professionals to acquire qualifications in Germany. Since 1976, specialist and managerial staff have had the opportunity to go on fact-finding visits in order to get to know the partner country's vocational training system. Workshops and bilateral cooperation projects are effective tools in these efforts.

Workshops offer specialist and managerial staff from Germany and Israel the opportunity to carry out an intensive exchange of ideas on specific subjects in the area of vocational training, including "continuing education in the area of IT" or "entrepreneurship in vocational training".

German-Israeli collaborations are underway in the field of microsystems technology and on the subject of "skills framework and credits in the IT sector", among other areas. In the field of microsystems technology, the work focuses on the joint development of curricula and model learning materials and their didactic and multimedia-based use. In the next two years, the collaboration in the IT sector will concentrate on developing approaches for the encouragement of professional mobility among Israeli and German IT specialists in the context of the current European discussion on skills frameworks and credits.   

Laser Technology and Optical Technologies

The BMBF's programme LASER 2000, which was carried out in cooperation with the Ministry of Science, Culture and Sport (MOST), focused on laying the groundwork for new generations of lasers and opening up new areas of application.
In 2004, this collaboration was restructured with a view to supporting R&D projects carried out by private companies. The BMBF's Israeli partner is now MOITAL's Office of the Chief Scientist (OCS).

Materials Research and Chemical Nanotechnology

Cooperation between the BMBF and MOST in the field of materials research was originally part of the former BMBF materials research programme MaTech and focused on areas such as the development of new magnesium alloys and materials for new batteries.

When the BMBF programme "WING - Materials Innovations for Industry and Society" was published in 2003, a new cooperation model for international projects was introduced. It stipulates that at least two partners - one company and one research institution - must participate in collaborative projects on each side. The research institution can either be a subcontractor of the private company or an independent partner. The German partners are supported by the BMBF; the Israeli partners by the OCS/MOITAL. The current WING priorities include bionic materials, computational accuracy in material sciences, lightweight construction and electromagnetic materials.

Projects and research visits that focus on these areas and other subjects in the natural sciences are supported by BMBF/MOST/MOITAL programmes as well as by the German-Israeli Project Cooperation (DIP), Minerva, the German-Israeli Foundation (GIF), the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (AvH), the Max Planck Society (MPG) and the German Research Association (DFG).

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