It officially launched last week at HUJI\u2019s Givat Ram campus, but the building where researchers will meet will eventually be erected near Road 16 and the Begin Highway \u2013 a central hub connecting all four partners.<\/p>\n
![\"Bird](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/486783.jpeg\"\/)
Bird eye view of Jerusalem cityscape; The Hebrew University of Jerusalem Edmond J. Safra Campus in Givat Ram. March 1 2013. (credit: NATI SHOHAT\/FLASH90)<\/p>\n
The event was attended by Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion<\/a>, SZMC CEO Prof. Ofer Merin, Lev Academic Center CEO Roi Ohev Zion, Jerusalem Development Authority CEO Tzachi Namir, and 100 representatives of academia, the healthcare system, the government, and the country\u2019s innovation industry.<\/p>\n Unprecedented platform for collaboration<\/p>\n A public company owned by the partnering institutions is being established to create this unprecedented platform for collaboration, while promoting applied research, technology commercialization, and the establishment of start-ups. Azrieli and Lev are each covering a sixth of the initial expenses, while the other two partners are each allocating a third. They expect that the effort will create advanced human capital development and a connection among researchers, entrepreneurs, investors, and knowledge-intensive industries.<\/p>\n The effort will significantly strengthen Jerusalem\u2019s position as one of the country\u2019s main growth engines in Israel in the coming decades, a capital of innovation and science and an international hub that connects groundbreaking research, as well as the founding of start-ups and companies. It will open new high-level jobs for qualified personnel and attract them to live in Jerusalem.<\/p>\n In an interview with In Jerusalem, Lev Academic Center president Prof. Avi Domb \u2013 who was previously president of Azrieli College, head of HUJI\u2019s School of Pharmacy, and the Science Ministry\u2019s chief scientist \u2013 conceded that the timing is challenging and problematic. Research budgets around the world are under pressure; competition for grants is fierce; and international collaborations can be affected by political considerations.<\/p>\n \u201cAs Israel is unfortunately not very popular around the world today, FourWard will have to prove itself in an increasingly competitive and uncertain global funding environment \u2013 not to lower expectations but to raise them by producing world-class research, nurture breakthrough technologies, and create an innovation ecosystem compelling enough that partners and investors will want to be part of it,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n \u201cWe believe we can still get grants to create new technologies. We aim not to write journal papers but to create new technologies. We won\u2019t replace the research facilities of each partner. FourWard will be a place to meet, discuss in shared spaces, hold seminars, plan, and coordinate.\u201d<\/p>\n Asked for examples of what new medical technologies could be produced, Prof. Dan Turner \u2013 director of SZMC\u2019s Pediatric Gastroenterology Institute and the hospital\u2019s vice president of R&D and innovation \u2013 said: \u201cWe cooperate with HUJI and the Lev Academic Center all the time, but, for example, now we can use our joint databases to look at the thousands of drugs taken for many years by patients and find out whether they were protective or caused harm. All data will be private and anonymous. Instead of pushing a catheter into the blocked coronary arteries of patients, a tiny robot can be introduced into the body to fix.\u201d<\/p>\n This isn\u2019t a pipedream, he said; it recalls the movie The Fantastic Voyage from 1966, in which a blood clot makes a scientist comatose, and a submarine and its crew are shrunk and injected into his bloodstream to save him.<\/p>\n \u201cCooperation with Azrieli is also improving hip replacements and treating devastating bone infections that can result from them. Another example, collaboration with Azrieli now to do change bones. We are developing together a chip left in the body to identify early infections so antibiotics can be given faster. Biological drugs can replace some types of antibiotics to which there is bacterial resistance. We at SZMC are the first in the world to have a system in which a doctor asks for a blood test for a patient, and AI can predict the results of the tests with 99.5% accuracy and suggest adding or removing tests.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are dozens of ideas; the sky is the limit. Working together, one plus one will equal three. Collaboration by different organizations is better than one seeking a solution,\u201d Turner added.<\/p>\n If SZMC has a problem it can\u2019t solve alone, Azrieli can offer engineering ideas, and HUJI can suggest pure science to create a solution, said Amit Persiko, the vice president and CEO of Azrieli. \u201cThe initiative started with the Jerusalem Municipality, and then a government decision followed 18 months ago,\u201d he said. \u201cJerusalem is one of the most diverse cities in the world, with secular, Modern Orthodox, and haredim and Arabs \u2013 and they are all represented at Azrieli in its student body and staff. A third of our students are IDF reservists, 42% of our engineering staff are women.\u201d<\/p>\n Persiko noted that a major new field is bioconvergence \u2013 a multidisciplinary field that merges biology, engineering, and computation to create cutting-edge solutions for complex challenges. It enables breakthroughs like personalized medicine, regenerative therapies, and bio-inspired materials across healthcare<\/a>, agriculture, and climate sustainability, tissue engineering, smart biosensors, organs-on-chips, bioprinting, creating vascularized 3D tissues from living cells for regenerative medicine, and even integrating electronic components to monitor or stimulate tissue.<\/p>\n Dr. Renana Ofan, director of SZMC\u2019s Research and Development Authority, who is a leading neuroscientist, said that \u201cthe partnership is not targeted on one subject or just health but on many disciplines. FourWard would like to get a grant quickly to present the fruits of our efforts. Doctors will initiate projects because they meet with patients daily, see their distress, and know what is needed.\u201d<\/p>\n