This summer, UC Berkeley partnered with nonprofit organization California-Israel Collaborations in Research, an organization funded by wealthy supporters of Israel, to expand the organization’s research seed grant funding to campus.
Modeled after the France-Berkeley Fund, a program that supports research collaborations between UC Berkeley and institutions across France, the California-Israel program began at UC Davis in 2017.
“Program funds will support natural science research collaborations between Berkeley faculty and researchers in Israel,” said campus spokesperson Dan Mogulof in an email. “These awards may lead to collaborations that will yield joint publications, research proposals, new partnerships between research centers, and strengthened ties between the scientific communities of California and Israel.”
According to Jay Rosenheim, UC Davis professor emeritus and co-director of the California-Israel program, the project aims to promote academic research and exchange programs that support mutual understanding.
“We modeled our program after the Berkeley-France program, which also involves Berkeley and Davis. Plus, the philanthropic foundations that support us are based here, in Northern California,” Rosenheim said in an email.
The program is focused on research involving mathematical and physical sciences, biological sciences, engineering, agriculture and medicine, according to the California-Israel program’s website.
At UC Davis, the program has supported research projects involving semiconductors, head and neck cancer treatment and sustainable barley breeding.
“The research initiated by this program has led to a large number of research publications and further research progress. This is a popular program which has gotten an increasing number of applications each year (55 in the most recent cycle),” said Joel Hass, UC Davis distinguished professor of geometry and topology, in an email.
The California-Israel program is funded by the Koum Family Foundation and the Koret Foundation.
Jan Koum, one of the cofounders of WhatsApp, formed the Koum Family Foundation in 2015.
The foundation is a private nonprofit grantmaking foundation with more than $3 billion in net assets, according to tax data collected by ProPublica. Its funding is used to support higher education, Jewish and pro-Israel organizations.
According to the California-Israel program’s website, the Koum Foundation is funding the expansion to UC Berkeley.
In 2024, the Koum Family Foundation donated $200,000 to the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces. It also donated $1 million to Friends of Ir David Inc., a U.S.-registered fundraising organization associated with the Ir David Foundation, or Elad, a tourism and archaeology organization that critics have claimed supports settlement of Palestinian land around Jerusalem.
The Koum Foundation also gave $700,000 to the American Israel Education Foundation, which describes itself on its website as a “charitable organization affiliated with AIPAC, America’s pro-Israel lobby.”
Similarly, the Koret Foundation donated $1.5 million to the American Israel Education Foundation in 2024. In 2023, Koret donated $1 million to the Shalem Foundation.
The Shalem Foundation is an American organization that raises money for Shalem College, which helped procure items such as tactical knives and helmets for IDF student reservists called up for duty after the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks.
According to its website, the California-Israel program hopes to expand throughout college campuses across California.
“UC Berkeley appreciates opportunities to expand collaborations with researchers in other countries, across a broad range of disciplines and perspectives,” Mogulof said. “The Berkeley program has not made awards yet; the application review and award selection process is still underway. We anticipate awarding 4-5 research projects and 1-2 mobility awards by the end of the year.”