Summary:

Program Description

The National Authority for Technological Innovation and the Department for Socioeconomic Development in the Bedouin Society in the Negev at the Ministry of Diaspora announce the opening of a competitive process to select one Franchisor – an Israeli corporations, whether for profit or nonprofit – who will establish and operate an innovation center for the Bedouin community, to promote technological innovation, technological entrepreneurship, startup companies, and employment in high-tech. The Franchisor will operate under the guidelines of the Innovation Accelerators Fund’s establishment of technological innovation centers program. 

The Role of Investors and Multinational Companies in the Innovation Centers: Non-profit organizations, public bodies, and NGOs

Private investors and multinational companies can participate and invest in the centers themselves or in the companies and ventures operating within them, through various means: 

• Direct investments in startups and ventures nurtured within the centers.
• Collaborations with local companies, academia, and research institutions to develop technologies and products.
• Establishing R&D centers in Israel that generate demand for innovation, development services, technological infrastructure, and facilitate knowledge spillover to local companies. 

Finance 

The winner of the competitive process will receive a concession to establish and operate a technological innovation center for the Bedouin community, for a period of 5 years. For each year of activity during the concession period, the concessionaire will be entitled to a grant of up to 2,000,000 NIS, based on a work plan. 

What activities will the selected grantee be required to perform?

The center, which is expected to include, among other things, technology companies, research institutions, and partners from the Bedouin society, with significant added value, can include activities to build, encourage, and strengthen an innovation ecosystem, promote entrepreneurship in technological fields, pre-acceleration and acceleration of ventures, and ideation.

The center will support the creation of a supportive framework for establishing innovative startups, in cooperation with entities such as companies, academia, research institutions, local government bodies, existing industries, relevant consulting services, including advice and assistance in submitting applications within the various support tracks of the Innovation Authority, engagement with investors from the private market, accelerators, angel clubs, investors, and more.

Criteria

• The proposer must be a corporation registered legally in Israel and operating according to Israeli law. 
• The proposer or the proposed CEO must be employed full-time at the innovation center and the owners of control must meet the requirements of the regulations for encouraging research and development in industry (conditional approvals – minimum wage), 2011. 
• The proposer or the significant partners in the proposal must not have restricted accounts and must not be in the process of insolvency, liquidation, or similar proceedings. 

No financial aid has been received, directly or indirectly, from a government body or the Innovation Authority for carrying out the proposed activity, outside the guidelines of the relevant benefit track and sub-track. 

Evaluation

• The proposer’s business plan. 
• The scope and quality of the experience of the proposer and/or the partners in the proposer. 
• The added value of the proposer and the partners in the proposer. 
• The scope and quality of the experience of the proposed team. 
• Funding sources. 
• General impression of the committee members. 

Application Process

• The deadline for submitting clarification questions regarding the process: August 14, 2025.  
• The Innovation Authority reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to respond to questions submitted after the mentioned date.  
• The answers to the clarification questions will be published collectively on the Innovation Authority’s website, no later than September 4, 2025, and they will be an integral part of the competitive process. 
• The deadline for submitting proposals: October 16, 2025, at 12:00 PM. Proposals submitted after this date will not be accepted.

Israeli Companies – For further information on the requirements and application process for this program, please refer to the Israel Innovation Authority’s Hebrew site.

The Innovation Authority reserves the sole discretion to change any of the dates listed in this call for proposals, by a notice to be published on the Authority’s website – on the call for proposals page, including postponing any of the dates, as long as it has not yet passed.  

It is the responsibility of the proposers to update from time to time the Innovation Authority’s website, regarding date postponements, or updates, changes, notices, or clarifications that will be in connection with the competitive process.