The University of Illinois System and The Hebrew University of Jerusalem recently awarded a total of $200,000 to four new interdisciplinary research teams that will drive innovations and advance collaboration between the universities. The projects are the fourth round of a joint research and innovation seed grant program that began in 2019.
The initiative seeks to accelerate economic development through the development of innovative technologies, building on talent, innovations and resources from the two universities. Funding for the program comes from The Hebrew University`s International Office and its Authority for R&D, and the University of Illinois System’s Office of the President and Office of the Vice President for Economic Development and Innovation.
The newly funded projects will focus on the limiting factors and efficiency of carbon sequestration; developing flexible batteries for wearable electronics; enabling long-context reasoning in large language models; and visually augmented language models.
“The proposals we receive for this seed grant program are truly innovative,” said Jay Walsh, the U of I System’s vice president for economic development and innovation. “I am impressed by the new knowledge that previous research projects have developed and the significant impact each could have. We expect that these newly funded projects will lead to breakthrough discoveries. This seed grant program is a cornerstone in the partnership we continue to build with Hebrew University, its faculty and its students.”
The partnership between the two universities also includes The Hebrew University as a founding academic partner of the Discovery Partners Institute, a U of I System initiative designed to train people for high-demand tech jobs, conduct applied R&D and help build businesses to grow Chicago’s tech ecosystem.
Project teams were required to have participation from The Hebrew University and from one of the three U of I System universities. Proposals also had to focus on agriculture, artificial intelligence, data science, medicine, STEM or life sciences – key areas of strength for both institutions.
"We are excited to launch the fourth round of joint research projects with the University of Illinois System,” said Oron Shagrir, HUJI’s vice president for international affairs. “The four new collaborative projects constitute a significant diversification of our joint endeavor to combine innovative and groundbreaking research in all STEM and life sciences topics with a strong potential for technology development and commercialization, thus also making an important contribution to the economic development of both ecosystems. We are very much looking forward to further expanding and deepening our collaboration with the University of Illinois System.”
The projects receiving grants are:
• Understanding limiting factors influencing the efficiency of atmospheric CO2 sequestration by basalt amendments in soils. Co-principal investigators: Maya Engel, Faculty of Soil and Water Sciences, Hebrew University, and Yuji Aral, College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
• Reinvention of the electrochemical interface enabling flexible batteries for wearable electronics. Co-principal investigators: Daniel Mandler, Faculty of Chemistry, Hebrew University, and Theresa Schoetz, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
• Enabling long-context reasoning in LLMs through modular merging. Co-principal investigators: Roy Schwartz, Faculty of Computer Science and Engineering, Hebrew University, and Hao Peng, Grainger College of Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
• Visually augmented language models. Co-principal investigators: Yossi Adi, Faculty of Computer Science and Engineering, Hebrew University, and Alex Schwing, Grainger College of Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
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About University of Illinois System: The University of Illinois System is a world leader in research and discovery, and the largest educational institution in the state with more than 97,700 students, about 28,000 full-time equivalent faculty and staff, and universities in Urbana-Champaign, Chicago and Springfield. The U of I System awards more than 27,000 undergraduate, graduate and professional degrees annually. Learn more at https://www.uillinois.edu/.
About The Hebrew University: The Hebrew University is Israel's leading academic and research institution, serving 25,000 students from 80 countries. Founded in 1918 by visionaries including Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud, HUJI is ranked among the world's 100 leading universities. HUJI ranks 15th worldwide in patent filings and produces one-third of Israel’s civilian research, and to date, its faculty and alumni have won 8 Nobel Prizes, 1 Fields Medal and 1 Abel Prize. For more information, visit http://new.huji.ac.il/en.
