Binational funds provide funding for strategic partnerships between companies in two countries. They are funded jointly by both governments and provide funding for research and development projects up to commercial readiness. Projects are funded in stages, with smaller "mini projects" receiving faster approval and larger full projects receiving funding over multiple years. Funding recipients have no obligation to provide equity or intellectual property rights to the fund. Repayment is only required if the project leads to actual commercial sales. Examples of existing binational funds were provided for partnerships between Israel and other countries in both Europe and North America.
2. Agenda
What are binational funds ?
Principles & characteristics
Process & agreements
List of funds & examples
More international funding options
Summary
3. Funding
Binational fund, each OCS allocates
budget to the fund
Bilateral agreement where each
government agrees to fund joint
programs
4. Principles
Fund gains no equity in either company
No intellectual property rights to fund
Funding is repaid via royalties from
commercial sales
Foreign partner also gets parallel funding
As with OCS, requires matching funding
from other source
5. Characteristic
Funding up to “commercial readiness” of project
preference to R&D
larger company
product definition and specification, sales, and
service
smaller company
product development and some manufacturing
6. Characteristic
No service payment to binational fund
Foreign partner may be shareholder in Israeli
company
most funds have positive cash flow
Wide variety of markets and fields
7. Process
Choose a “partner” country
Identify the relevant fund and its timelines
Identify a local partner
Agree with local partner on joint proposal
and project principles
Submit proposal to fund (jointly)
8. Agreements
After funding award, 2 related agreements
trilateral agreement between fund and
both partners
standard
bilateral agreement between 2 partners,
including commercial arrangements
flexible , no fund involvement
9. Country List
EUROPE • Spain • Taiwan
• Belgium • Sweden • Australia
• Britain • Czech Republic (Victoria)
• Denmark • Switzerland • Singapore
• Finland • Turkey • South Korea
• France • Coming Soon • AMERICAS
• Germany • Hungary • USA
• Holland • Romania • Also: Maryland
• Italy • APAC & Virginia
• Portugal • China • Canada
• Russia • Hong Kong • Also: Ontario
• Slovenia • India • Argentina
10. BIRD: US/
20 projects annually
cumulative sales exceeding 8B$
Project type $$ Schedule Fund Approval by:
Full scale ~400,000
2/ year Board of Governors
project USD
~200,000
Mini project ongoing Executive Director
USD
11. SIIRDF:
Project type $$ Duration
duration up to 3 years,
100,000 -750,000
Full scale project not more than 500K per
USD year
duration up to 1
Mini project ~100,000 USD
year
Feasibility Study 30,000USD
12. CIIRDF:
Project How long to
Project type $$
Schedule approve?
Full-scale ~800,000 up to 3
6-8 weeks
Project CAD years
Feasibility ~20,000
6 months ~ 2 weeks
Study CAD
13. Other
Multi-lateral programs, such as FP7
(ISERD), Eureka, Galileo, SESAR,
Eurostars
Multi-national enterprise cooperation
together with the OCS
14. Multi-national
2 parallel sources of funding: OCS & multi-
national enterprise
“No limit” on funding amount
OCS will match multi-national investment (up to
50% of approved budget, not exceeding multi-
national investment value)
Multi-national funding in cash or cash-value
(goods, services, licenses)
Purpose: Product development or adaptation
15. Enterprise
Alcatel Lucent Merck
Arkema Microsoft
Braun Novozymes
Coca Cola Oracle
Deutcshe Telekom Renault
GE Sun Micro Systems
HP
IBM
Intel
16. Summary
Fast track funding for mini projects
Periodic funding for large projects
Strategic foreign partner who also gets
funded
No equity to fund
No IP rights to fund
Monetary obligation contingent upon actual
commercial sales