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The Office of the Chief Scientist (OCS) is a department within the Israeli Ministry of Industry Labor and Trade in charge of Government support for industrial research and development. The OCS manages numerous support programs covering various aspects of industrial R&D with a significant budget to support its activities.
The main OCS programs are:
- Industrial Research and Development - the first and major of OCS programs. Any industrial company can receive up to 50% of a R&D project, returned to government only from sales, meaning that the Government shares R&D risks.
- Technology Incubators - designed to support zero-stage science based industrial companies by providing as a loan up to 85% of company's first two years budget and managerial and marketing umbrella to be returned only upon success.
- Magnet - Designed for generic research and development. Provided as a research grant to consortia of Academy Institutions and large, medium and small industrial companies, which share developed Intellectual Property.
- Traditional Industry - A relatively recent program providing incentives to Israeli low technology industries to invest in research and development.
In addition OCS supports international cooperation and is partner in numerous bi-national and international programs, of which the to most important are:
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BIRD - A US-Israeli fund that provides support similar to the support provided by OCS's in its main R&D program designed to promote joint R&D projects of Israeli and American companies. Conditional grants (grants returned from future sales) are provided to both the Israeli and the American partner in the project.
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The European R&D Program - Israeli is a partner in the program and its share is continuously growing.
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