The Israeli Centers for Research Excellence (I-CORE) is an initiative designed by the Planning and Budgeting Committee (PBC) and the Government of Israel. The initiative is part of the Higher Education multi-year Reform Plan, which gradually establishes leading research centers specializing in a range of disciplines. The Centers of Excellence and the program’s vision are aimed at fundamentally strengthening the long term positioning of Israel’s academic research and its stature among leading researchers in Israel and abroad.
I-CORE was endorsed by the Government of Israel and adopted by Israel’s Council of Higher Education in March 2010. The program is jointly run by the PBC and the Israeli Science Foundation (ISF).
The I-CORE Steering Committee is in charge of designing and approving the program’s principles and modus operandi, the selection of research topics, the reviewing of the evaluation committees’ reports and declaration of the groups selected to establish the I-COREs.
The International Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) of the program advises to the Steering Committee on the various issues, supplying it with an external professional perspective, and assists the ISF with managing the evaluation process.
The Program’s objectives are:
- Strengthening scientific research in Israel and establishing Israel’s standing as a world leader in scientific research;
- “Brain Gain”: Bringing excellent researchers back to Israel, as a central means of fortifying the research capabilities and the academic faculty of the institutions of higher education;
- Creating a critical mass and intensifying the relative advantages in select fields in the different institutions;
- Improving and upgrading the research infrastructure in the universities;
- Encouraging academic innovation, including integration between different fields of knowledge (multi-disciplinarity);
- Maintaining and promoting advanced programs of instruction and training in select fields;
- Encouraging research collaboration between institutions of higher education, both universities and colleges;
- Strengthening the scientific research in Israel in disciplines of system-wide and national importance
- Promoting collaboration with leading researchers and research institutions worldwide.
A “Center of excellence” is an association of outstanding researchers in a specific research field, who are current faculty members of different higher education institutions, for the purpose of promoting groundbreaking and innovative research. The center serves as an anchor for shared research infrastructure and research groups in this field, and allows optimal utilization of the scientific potential of Israel.