TEL AVIV, Israel, February 6, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

The current call for proposals announced by BIRD Energy is in its fourth funding cycle for U.S.-Israel joint Project Proposals with a focus on Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency.

To be considered, a project proposal must include R&D cooperation between two companies or cooperation between a company and a university/research institution (one from the U.S. and one from Israel). The proposal should have significant commercial potential and the project outcome should lead to commercialization.

The following areas of research and development themes are within the scope of this call: Solar Power, Alternative Fuels, Advanced Vehicle Technologies, Smart Grid, Wind Energy or any other Renewable Energy or Energy Efficiency technology.

The conditional grant per project is up to 50% of the R&D costs associated with the joint project, and up to a maximum of $1 million per project.

The application process is web-based and requires prior discussion with the BIRD Foundation.  Initial concept submissions are due by May 3, 2012, and full proposals are due by June 28, 2012. Decisions on projects selected for funding will be made by September 6, 2012. Please refer to BIRD's website for submission details - http://www.birdf.com.

BIRD Energy was established following an agreement between the U.S. Department of Energy/EERE and the Israel Ministry of Energy and Water Resources to promote and support joint research and collaborations in the field of Alternative Energy and Energy Efficiency. BIRD Energy is administered by the BIRD Foundation which has been promoting cooperation between U.S. and Israeli companies in various technology areas since 1977.

In addition to BIRD Energy, on December 13, 2011, the BIRD Foundation awarded funding for two additional Alternative Energy and Efficiency projects:

• EnVerid Systems (Israel) and Johnson Controls (Milwaukee, WI) will jointly develop a novel air handling technology for reducing energy consumption of HVAC (Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning).
• RAFAEL (Israel) and Covanta Energy (Morristown, NJ) will develop and demonstrates a biomass-to-fuel mobile system.

For more information please contact Ms. Limor Nakar-Vincent, Director, U.S. Business Development & BIRD Energy, BIRD Foundation, Tel: +972-3-698-8315, or Ms. Andrea Yonah, East Coast Representative, Tel: +1-609-356-0305, http://www.birdf.com

SOURCE The BIRD Foundation