Israel

Close partnership with decades of history

Close collaborations with Israel, the world's leading science and research nation, are very important to the Max Planck Society the individual Institutes of which are currently involved in over 90 collaborative projects with six universities, the Weizmann Institute of Science (WIS), and other Israeli government research facilities. Many of these are EU-funded projects in which large international consortia collaborate. The contemporary close relations between the Max Planck Society and Israel are based on decades of interaction and information exchange.

The Weizmann Institute of Science Rehovot, about 20 kilometres south of Tel Aviv is the Max Planck Society's key partner, not just because of its special historical relationship with this research Institute, but also because of its shared focus on basic research. It is no coincidence, therefore, that Professor Alon Chen, a leading member of one of the Max Planck Institutes, was elected President of the Weizmann Institute for the second time in late 2019 (after Daniel Zajfman). Other important partners for various Max Planck Institutes include the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv University and the Technion in Haifa.

Multifaceted research collaboration between the two countries

May 2023 saw the launch of a promising programme between the Max Planck Society and its long-standing partner, the Weizmann Institute of Science (WIS): The Max Planck Weizmann Postdoc Program: This programme offers outstanding international postdoctoral researchers in the fields of physics, chemistry, mathematics, computer science and earth sciences a prestigious appointment for four years in a unique research environment. The postdocs spend two years at an institute of the Max Planck Society and a further two years at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot.

In response to the atrocious terrorist attack by Hamas against Israel on October 7, 2023, the subsequent armed conflicts and the associated consequences for the Israeli research landscape, the Max Planck Israel Programme was launched in autumn 2023 by President Patrick Cramer. As part of partnerships between Principal Investigators (PIs) at Max Planck Institutes and Israeli universities as well as the WIS, international and Israeli doctoral students and postdocs can continue their research at MPIs for the duration of the war.

Since May 2024, the Israel Science Foundation (ISF) has been a cooperation partner of the programme: Israeli PIs who have an ISF research grant can also partner with PIs at Max Planck Institutes and send both PhD students and postdocs to an MPI.

The Minerva Stiftung as a flagship of collaboration

The Minerva Stiftung, a non-profit limited liability company of which the Max Planck Society is the sole shareholder, exemplifies the particularly close relations between the Max Planck Society and its Israeli partners. Its objective is to promote scientific research in Germany and Israel as well as research exchanges and collaboration between researchers in both countries. The Max Planck Society would also like to strengthen relations between Germany and Israel, which is why it provides support for research projects and collaborations, research centres and individual projects in Israel and Germany through the Minerva Stiftung. [more]