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Representatives of the Neuron Foundation, the IOCB Tech Foundation and other partners met at the residence of the Israeli ambassador Anna Azari to launch the first year of the student scholarship Neuron & IOCB Tech Internships in Israel.

The new programme's aim is to bring knowledge from abroad into Czech science: university students will work on their own research in Israel and will also get to know the Israeli science ecosystem, with a focus on transferring scientific findings into practice and commercialising them.

"At the Neuron Foundation we systematically connect science with business and inspire the coming generation towards science," says Monika Vondráková, chair of the board of the Neuron Foundation. "The new programme is unique in that, thanks to our contacts and links with the best Israeli universities, we can point students in the right direction. And thereby ensure that they get as much as possible out of a two-month stay for their own work," she explains.

Behind the programme stand the Neuron Foundation and the endowment fund founded by IOCB Tech, which also funds it. The programme's spiritual father, IOCB Tech director Martin Fusek, adds: "Relations between the Israeli and Czech scientific communities are excellent. Science in Israel is done at an outstanding level; in university corridors you meet Nobel Prize winners alongside successful entrepreneurs. And we want to enrich our students with experience of transfer and a business approach to science, to show them how to apply science in practice."

The Neuron & IOCB Tech Internships in Israel programme is intended for ten students, who will receive CZK 60,000 for travel and accommodation. Applications can be submitted until 15 March; the internships will run from May to September 2023.

Neuron & IOCB Tech Internships in Israel is also supported by the First Faculty of Medicine of Charles University, the Czech-Israeli Chamber of Commerce, the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Israel and the Embassy of the State of Israel in the Czech Republic.

"We welcome another initiative that brings Israel and its approach to science closer to Czech students," the Israeli ambassador Anna Azari said during the informal meeting to launch the project. "I believe your students will get to know technology transfer thoroughly at our institutions. In Israel we have a long tradition of applied science and a well-functioning system thanks to which commercialisation returns money to basic research."

The meeting at the Israeli ambassador's residence. From the left: Jan Trnka (last year's scholarship holder and a student at the Czech Technical University), Barbara Eignerová (chair of the board of the IOCB Tech Foundation), Monika Vondráková (chair of the board of the Neuron Foundation), Anna Kampová (last year's scholarship holder and a Charles University student), Anna Azari (Ambassador of the State of Israel to the Czech Republic), Martin Fusek (director of IOCB Tech), Anežka Kramná (last year's scholarship holder and a student at the University of Chemistry and Technology) and Kateřina Veselá (last year's scholarship holder and a Charles University student).

Neuron & IOCB Tech Internships in Israel is open to students of all fields — they choose their own supervisor and the Israeli institution at which they will work on their research. An important task after their return from Israel will be to present what they have learned to the Czech scientific community, along with the possibilities of science transfer, that is, of moving ideas, findings or inventions from research into practice.

"Students will broaden their scientific horizons, make new contacts and will also be exposed to the unconventional way of thinking so typical of Israelis and behind the success of their start-up mentality. I am convinced that a stay in Israel will allow Czech students to look at their own research from an entirely different angle," adds the Czech ambassador to Israel, Martin Stropnický, who gave Neuron & IOCB Tech Internships in Israel his support.

Among other things, the Neuron & IOCB Tech Internships in Israel programme aims to acquaint students with an environment that actively supports the transfer of scientific findings and technologies into practice. It is a long road, along which sufficient funding, legal protection and the right commercial direction for the original idea all have to be secured. The successful Israeli approach can be a great inspiration for talented Czech students.