Summary:

Program Description

The Israel Innovation Authority and the Authority for Economic and Social Development in Druze and Circassian Communities in the Prime Minister’s Office, announce the opening of a competitive process to select one franchisor, who will establish and operate an innovation center for the Druze and Circassian society, aimed at encouraging technological innovation, technological entrepreneurship, and the establishment of startups, and promote employment in high-tech. 
 
This franchise will operate under the Innovation Accelerator Fund, the Establishment of Technological Innovation Centers Incentive Program.

The Role of Investors and Multinational Companies

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 grant for the establishment and operation of a technological innovation center for the Druze and Circassian society, for a period of 5 years. The technological innovation center may operate in one or more geographical locations. For each year of operation during the grant period, the grantee 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 be composed, among other things, of technology companies, research institutions, and partners from the Druze and Circassian society with significant added value, may include activities to build, encourage, and strengthen an innovation ecosystem, encourage entrepreneurship in technological fields, pre-acceleration and acceleration of projects and ideation.

The center will support the creation of a supportive framework for the establishment of innovative ventures, 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 framework of the various support tracks of the Innovation Authority, engagement with investors from the private market, accelerators, angel clubs, investors, and more. 

Criteria

Eligibility Requirements 

• The proposer is a corporation duly registered in Israel and operates in accordance with the laws of the State of Israel, whether for profit or non-profit.
• The proposer has a candidate intended to be employed full-time as the CEO of the Innovation Center. 
• The proposer and its controlling shareholders meet the requirements of the Regulations for the Encouragement of Research and Development in Industry (Conditioning Approvals – Minimum Wage), 5771-2011. 
• The proposer or the significant partners in the proposer do not have restricted accounts and are not in the process of receivership, stay of proceedings, liquidation, etc. 
• No financial assistance has been received, for the purpose of carrying out the proposed activity detailed in the proposal, from a government entity or the Innovation Authority, directly or indirectly, other than in accordance with the provisions of the Incentive Track and the relevant Sub-Track. 

Evaluation Criteria 

• 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.

Note: 

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.