Bar-Ilan University. Photo: Bar-Ilan University/Wikimedia Commons.

JNS.org – Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan has inaugurated a Center for Energy and Sustainability and launched a Multidisciplinary School for Sustainability and the Environment.

Over the next decade, it plans to invest hundreds of millions of shekels in research and environmental projects in Israel and around the world.

At the launch of the Center for Energy and Sustainability on Monday, Israeli Energy Minister Karine Elharrar said, “As David Ben-Gurion put it, security is energy. We need a combination of different types of energy, and the crisis in Europe shows that we can’t give up on any of them at the moment. We must lead the world of energy, and an institute like the one inaugurated at Bar-Ilan is the place from which results will emerge. I welcome and hope for cooperation with the Ministry of Energy because the connection between regulators, academia and those in the field is what will march the State of Israel forward.”

The research center established on campus is meant to advise, initiate, and promote research while building collaborations with industry. Networks, artificial intelligence, storage, hydrogen, current stability and high voltage are some of the topics to be studied.

Alongside that center, the Multidisciplinary School for Sustainability and the Environment will serve as the university’s teaching arm and train the next generation of practitioners in these fields. It will also run courses in a hybrid or online manner, open to students from all academic disciplines on campus.

The number of applicants for degrees in environmental-related fields in recent years has steadily increased in recent years.

Senior officials from the Israel Electric Company and the Doral Group also spoke at the May 23 inaugural event.

Amir Livne, vice president of strategy at the Israel Electric Company, said, “just like during COVID-19, we are faced with an existential need that requires mobilization of the minds. This cannot be achieved without research and academia, and we have the best minds in the world here to meet this challenge.”

Roee Furman, managing director of Doral Energy-Tech Ventures, Doral Group’s innovation and investment arm, noted that “we are facing a decade of opportunities for real change in the fight against the climate crisis, and we at Doral are proud to be a pioneering force in funding and supporting applied research that will place Israel at the forefront in the war on global warming.”