The Fraunhofer Society with its 76 institutes and research facilities is considered the largest institution of application-oriented research and development in Europe. Its central research fields include health and the environment, mobility and transport as well as energy and raw materials. Almost 31,000 employees work on the annual research volume of around three billion euros.
A number of Fraunhofer Institutes have been cooperating successfully with Israeli research and industry partners for years. The Fraunhofer Society had over 40 projects with Israeli partners in 2021.
In addition, two Fraunhofer Project Centers have existed in Israel at the Hebrew University since mid-2019: the Fraunhofer Project Center for Cybersecurity (now renamed Fraunhofer Innovation Platform for Cybersecurity) and the Fraunhofer Innovation Platform for Drug Discovery and Delivery. The HUJI School of Computer Science cooperates with Fraunhofer SIT (Secure Information Technology) in the Fraunhofer Innovation Platform for Cybersecurity on strategies to protect data, IT systems and critical infrastructure. The platform serves as a bilateral R&D platform for companies and is the core of a competence network in the field of cybersecurity.
On 22 June 2022, Tel Aviv University (TAU) and Fraunhofer EMFT also opened the Fraunhofer Innovation Platform for Sensors and Applied Systems at Tel Aviv University (FIP-SENS@TAU). FIP-SENS@TAU is a Fraunhofer-like research unit, embedded in the legal structure of TAU, with the aim of conducting multi- and interdisciplinary research and development in the field of sensors at the highest level.
From April 2020 to September 2021, the Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology (IGB) conducted research together with the Fraunhofer Innovation Platform for Drug Discovery and Delivery at the Hebrew University in the anti-corona project ‘ISE-Cov-2-Screen’ to identify therapeutic substances for the treatment of COVID-19 patients using already approved molecules.