BIRD Energy, a programme sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy and the Israeli Ministry of Energy and Water Resources, has issued a Call for Proposals for funding of renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development (R&D) projects.
Among others, the areas of R&D themes that are within the scope of the call include wind energy. When contacted by Offshore WIND, an official from the BIRD Foundation, which is administering the BIRD Energy programme, confirmed that offshore wind projects would also qualify for the funding.
The conditional grant per project is up to 50% of the R&D costs associated with the joint project, and up to a maximum of USD 1 million per project.
To be considered, a project proposal must include R&D cooperation between two companies or cooperation between a company and a university/research institution – one from the U.S. and one from Israel . Proposals should have significant commercial potential and project outcome should lead to commercialisation, BIRD pointed out.
The application process is web-based and requires prior discussion with the BIRD Foundation. Initial concept submissions are due by 29 June , and full proposals are due by 11 August 2016 .
Decisions on projects selected for funding will be made on October 24, 2016 .