Index Study Reveals United States-Israel Relationship in Innovation-Related Activities Among the Strongest of Nine Compared Nations

WASHINGTON, D.C. – November 30, 2011 – The United States-Israel Science and Technology Foundation (USISTF), a Washington-based non-profit organization that facilitates R&D collaboration between the U.S. and Israel for the advancement of science and technology, today announced the findings of its first-annual U.S.-Israel Innovation Index (USI3) [insert link to landing page] at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. The Index, which measures and tracks Israel’s and eight other nation’s relationship to the U.S. in innovation-related activities, is intended to serve as a tool for developing sustainable policies and strategies that ensure U.S. technological leadership and global competitiveness.

“It is evident that Israel’s future development—economic, social, and political—and the United States’ geopolitical prominence are closely tied to the strength of the U.S.-Israeli relationship,” said Chief Scientist Avi Hasson, Israel Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor. “The Index’s findings cast the necessary light on the importance of developing proven and effective international cooperation practices. This is a valuable tool that helps policy decision-makers, industry leaders and academia measure scientific and technological innovation, economic development and knowledge exchange.”

The USI3 is a benchmarking tool, which provides a statistical foundation to understand the collaborative relationship between government, research institutions, and the private sector, industry, and the people of the United States and Israel in the fields of science and technology. USI3 The Index measures and compares the U.S.-Israel science and technology relationship against a set of other innovation-inclined nations, which, like Israel, possess important trade relationships with the U.S. The other nations selected as comparators for the Index include: Israel, Chile, Finland, Germany, Singapore, South Korea, Switzerland, Sweden and the United Arab Emirates.

Key finding of the U.S.-Israel Innovation Index that relate to Israel include:

- The relative strength of the U.S.-Israel relationship in both the Human Capital and Private Sector categories is the strongest of any of the nations included in the Index.

- Israel’s innovation-related relationship with the U.S. is consistently strong in most areas assessed by the Index.

- Results demonstrate that Israel’s relationship to the U.S. in innovation-related activities is stronger than that between the U.S. and any of the other compared nations.

- The level of U.S.-Israeli cooperation has been quite consistent over recent years.

“The U.S.-Israel relationship is strongly supported by science and technology cooperation that links a broad set of governmental, commercial, academic, and human capital assets of both nations,” Ann Liebschutz, executive director at U.S.-Israel Science and Technology Foundation (USISTF). “As such, the Index was created to identify the strengths and weaknesses exhibited in those relationships, and to ultimately improve bi-national, innovation-related activities.”

The U.S-Israel Innovation Index used quantitative metrics, which were normalized to ensure an appropriate comparison among nations that have vastly different sizes, population, and economic output. Indicators (or “metrics”) used to compose the Index were selected in four categories, covering activities and linkages in Government, Private Sector &Industry, Human Capital, and Research & Development. The structure of the Index valued each category equally, and within each category, each indicator carried the same weight.

About USISTF
The United States-Israel Science and Technology Foundation (USISTF) is a Washington-based non-profit organization established in 1995, that promotes mutually beneficial business collaboration between the US and Israel in the advancement of science and technology. The organization’s mission is to strengthen the US and Israel economic relationship in the global marketplace through the integration of science and technology and also to serve as a model for future international collaborative efforts.

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This release was published on openPR.