The Civil Research and Development Council (CRIDC) announced today (Sunday) the civilian space industry as a national priority area for the State of Israel for the next five years. The other four areas chosen are bio-convergence, foodtech, renewable energies and blue-tech. Areas of national priority were submitted to the Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology, Orit Farkash HaCohen.
The meaning of the decision is recognition of the strategic importance of the field of civil space: the research grant fund of the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology, worth approximately NIS 180 million per year, will place a significant emphasis on the areas of national priority and accordingly, national plans will be formulated in these areas. The decision is also in line with the strategic plan for space, which the Israel Space Agency submitted this year to the Ministry of Innovation and was approved by it.
The field of space has been recognized in recent years, in the State of Israel as in the rest of the world, as a force multiplier for significant economic growth as well as a lever that strengthens Israel’s international position. The decision to choose the local space industry as an area of national priority joins a series of decisions, investments and plans recently, to emphasize the civil space area as a national interest. Among other things, we can mention Israel’s decision to sign the Artemis agreements this year, the international program led by NASA for manned missions to the Moon and Mars; the Innovation Authority’s investment in the tender for greenhouses in the field of space, among other things, as part of an overall plan to develop an ecosystem of innovation with a budget of NIS 500 million; and the plan The space strategy, as mentioned, that the Israel Space Agency submitted this year to the Ministry of Innovation.
The strategic plan in particular includes an investment of approximately NIS 650 million over a period of five years, with the aim of doubling the number of local space companies and quadrupling the volume of annual sales in the field. The goals of the program are also, among other things, to establish international partnerships in the field of space as well as to increase the number of high school graduates who were involved in a tangible way in the field as well as the number of space researchers in the academy.
Comparative advantage and strategic need
The strategic plan for the promotion of the civilian space sector in Israel was presented in May by the Director of the Israel Space Agency, Brigadier General (Ret.) Uri Oron, at the request of Farkash HaCohen to map in detail the scope of opportunities as well as the vision, goals and actions required in order to take advantage of these opportunities. Background The plan stands for the dramatic change taking place in the field of space in the world in recent years, with the opening of space to entrepreneurs and private investors and its transformation into a growing and developing market.
Now, making the field of civil space one of the five fields of national priority is an important step in the implementation of the strategic plan. Orit Farkash HaCohen welcomed the recommendations of the National Council for Research and Development and said that “in the absence of a strategic concept, when I took office, I assigned to the MoLMOP the important task of recommending to me technological fields that at the national level we should promote. The criteria I defined for the M&D in the work process were the following: fields that will be at the forefront of global innovation in the next decade, subjects in which Israel has a comparative advantage and/or a strategic need, and subjects that will make a significant contribution to maintaining the scientific and research leadership of the State of Israel.
I congratulate Prof. Lavi and all the members of the forum who invested the year in this important and clear task which is surprising that has not been done until today. The technological priority areas will ensure Israel’s scientific and technological leadership for decades to come.”