The new agreement marks the renewal of a 2004 joint project known as the France-Israel International Associated Laboratory Agreement, which established the Franco-Israeli Laboratory of System Neurophysiology and Neurophysics, bringing together French and Israeli researchers. The French members, from the French National Research Center (CNRS), are faculty members of Paris-Descartes University and Victor Segalen University in Bordeaux, while the Israeli researchers are senior scientists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

That cooperative effort led to several collaborative joint research projects between scientists in the two countries, as well as to the first-ever French-Israeli binational neuroscience symposium -- first held in Israel in 2004 and now taking place biannually -- and to joint scientific publications.

The new agreement establishing the European Associated Laboratory (LEA), entitled the France-Israel Laboratory of Neuroscience, will be signed in the presence of President of the Hebrew University Prof. Menachem Magidor, vice-president of the Hebrew University for Research and Development Prof. Hillel Bercovier, president of the CNRS Prof. Catherine Brechignac, and vice-president of the Victor Segalen University Prof. Alain Blanchard.

“Ties with the French scientific world, and especially with the large research institutions in Europe, create new opportunities in brain research,” said Prof. Israel Nelken of the Silberman Institute of Life Sciences at the Hebrew University and one of the leaders of the joint project. “This cooperation is especially significant in a period during which one hears voices in Europe calling for a boycott of Israeli academia.”

The France-Israel Symposium in Neuroscience, sponsored by the France-Israel Laboratory of Neuroscience and the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, will follow the agreement signing.

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on March 16, 2009

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