Lockheed Martin and MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives (MISTI) create the MIT-Lockheed Martin Seed Fund in Israel

Lockheed Martin and MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives (MISTI) announced today the creation of the MIT-Lockheed Martin Seed Fund to promote early-stage collaborations between MIT faculty and researchers with universities and public research institutions in Israel. The Seed Fund will also take place in Germany while additional countries will be considered after the pilot year of 2019.

The MIT-Lockheed Martin Seed Fund, to be sponsored by Lockheed Martin with more than 150,000 USD, includes two to four projects for Israel and two to four projects for Germany. MIT will administrate the fund within the MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives (MISTI) program in the Center for International Studies. This funding may be used for travel, meeting, and workshop costs, inclusive of visits to Lockheed Martin and MIT facilities in the U.S. Furthermore, the Seed Fund includes one MIT program student internship in Israel as part of the MIT-Israel program and one MIT student internship in Germany as part of the MIT-Germany program.

For the inaugural year, the Seed Fund will focus on proposals which fit within Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Manufacturing priorities to identify emerging innovative technologies around but not limited to: Manufacturing Process Control, Modeling of Materials and Processes, Novel materials for extreme environments and Automation of the Factory of the Future.

This collaboration brings the ability to align projects around Lockheed Martin’s areas of technology interest and interface with top global universities under a structured program which may lead to sponsored research under a separate agreement. Collaborating faculty will have the opportunity move forward their joint projects as well as engage with LM facilities in the U.S. and Israel.

Lockheed Martin is proud of the new initiative with MISTI in Israel, that joins the collaboration made in the last years with Israel’s Ministry of Education, Ministry of Science and Technology and the Rashi Foundation to promote STEM related programs from kindergarten throughout high school to academy.