The Israel Science Foundation (ISF) is Israel’s principal government-backed funder of basic (curiosity-driven) research across all fields of knowledge — exact sciences and technology, life sciences and medicine, and the humanities and social sciences. It is administered by the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, and the large majority of its funding comes from the Government of Israel. This guide covers how the ISF is structured, its main grant tracks, and how eligible researchers apply.
Not to be confused with the clinical-research term “ISF.” In clinical trial operations, “ISF” much more commonly stands for Investigator Site File — the set of essential documents a clinical trial site maintains to demonstrate GCP compliance. That is an entirely different, unrelated meaning of the same acronym. This page is about the Israel Science Foundation, the Israeli national research-funding agency; if you were looking for the clinical-trials document set, see the Investigator Site File (ISF) dictionary entry instead.
What Is the Israel Science Foundation?
The ISF traces back to 1972, when it was established as the Branch for Basic Research; it took its current name in 1991. Its mission is to support scientific excellence and breakthrough basic research in Israel, funding principal investigators, researchers in training, clinical researchers, and — through some of its tracks — research infrastructure and organizations, across a wide range of funding mechanisms. It is a peer-reviewed, competitive funder: proposals are evaluated primarily on scientific merit and originality rather than applied or commercial potential.
Governance and Administration
The ISF is not a standalone government ministry — it operates under the umbrella of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Israel’s independent national academy, which provides its governance and scientific oversight structure, including its review committees. This is a similar model to how several other national science academies worldwide (rather than a dedicated funding ministry) house a country’s flagship basic-research grant program. Because ISF is embedded in the Academy, its committees and review panels draw heavily on the Academy’s own membership and networks of Israeli and international referees.
Budget and Scale
The ISF is funded primarily by the Government of Israel, supplemented by additional sources including bilateral cooperation agreements with foreign funding agencies. Publicly reported figures put its annual grant budget at roughly $140 million USD, though exact figures vary by year and by how “annual budget” is defined (new commitments in a given year versus total disbursements across all active multi-year grants); institutions and applicants should treat any single figure as approximate and check the ISF’s own published financial reports for the current cycle rather than relying on a fixed number. The ISF funds a large, continuously renewing portfolio of multi-year grants spanning its full disciplinary range at any given time.
ISF Grant Programs and Tracks
The ISF runs several distinct grant tracks rather than a single undifferentiated funding pool. The tracks below are the ones most relevant to research administrators and applicants; program names, eligibility windows, and funding ceilings are set by the ISF and can change between cycles, so always confirm current terms on the ISF’s own application portal before advising a researcher.
Individual Research Grants (the flagship track)
Individual Research Grants are the ISF’s largest and most widely used program — an annual, discipline-open competition open to investigators across exact sciences and technology, life sciences and medicine, and the humanities and social sciences. It funds standard hypothesis-driven or exploratory basic-research projects led by a single principal investigator or a small team, typically over a multi-year grant period. The annual call typically closes in the fall (historically an early-November submission deadline), followed by peer review and committee decision the following year; applicants should confirm the exact date for the current cycle on the ISF portal, since call dates shift somewhat year to year.
Breakthrough Research Grants (BRG)
The Breakthrough Research Grants track is aimed at high-risk, high-reward research — proposals for genuinely novel directions that would be difficult to fund through a standard, incremental peer-review process because of their speculative nature. It sits alongside the Individual Research Grants track as a separate, smaller-scale mechanism specifically for ideas that need a different risk tolerance from reviewers than mainstream basic-research funding allows.
Mavri — Biomedical Research Grants
Mavri is the ISF’s dedicated biomedical research track, funding projects in the life sciences and medicine that may not fit neatly into the general Individual Research Grants competition, reflecting the scale and specialization of biomedical research at Israeli universities, research institutes, and hospitals.
Beresheet — Absorbing Outstanding Young Researchers
Beresheet is ISF’s flagship program for early-career principal investigators, specifically for outstanding researchers taking up their first independent PI position in Israel after postdoctoral training abroad — including both Israeli researchers returning home and researchers immigrating to Israel. Candidates across all fields of science must typically have completed at least two years of postdoctoral training overseas and be within about six years of receiving their PhD. Recent cycles have funded successful Beresheet awardees for up to five years, with reported award ceilings on the order of 700,000 NIS per year for experimental/empirical research or 400,000 NIS per year for theoretical research, plus a one-time equipment grant to help establish a new laboratory. Because Beresheet targets a specific career transition point (first PI appointment following a defined postdoctoral window), eligibility should be checked carefully against the current call text — the exact thresholds are the kind of detail that can be adjusted between cycles.
Equipment Grants (New-Faculty and Mid-Career)
The ISF runs separate equipment-grant tracks aimed at helping researchers establish or expand laboratory infrastructure at two different career stages: New-Faculty Equipment Grants for researchers setting up a lab for the first time, and Mid-Career Equipment Grants for established investigators whose existing infrastructure needs significant renewal or expansion. These are typically awarded alongside — not instead of — a researcher’s core research funding.
Bilateral and International Cooperation Programs
Beyond its domestic tracks, the ISF administers bilateral research-cooperation programs with a number of foreign funding agencies — historically including joint programs with Swiss and German funding bodies — that support collaborative projects between Israeli researchers and counterparts in the partner country, typically requiring coordinated applications reviewed by both national funders. The ISF is a distinct organization from the US-Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF), a separate bilateral funding body dedicated specifically to US-Israel research collaboration; researchers assembling a full picture of Israel’s research-funding landscape should be aware both exist, but they are administered separately with their own application processes.
Eligibility
Eligibility varies by track, but the ISF’s grant programs are generally restricted to researchers affiliated with recognized Israeli universities, research institutes, other higher-education institutions, and hospitals — the applicant’s home institution normally administers the grant and countersigns the application. Track-specific criteria layer on top of this base requirement: for example, Beresheet applies career-stage criteria (first PI position, recent postdoctoral training abroad, a PhD-recency window), while the standard Individual Research Grants track is open more broadly to PIs at eligible institutions regardless of career stage. Applicants who are uncertain whether their institution or appointment qualifies should confirm directly with their institution’s grants/research office, which will typically already have an established relationship with ISF administrative requirements, or with the ISF directly.
How to Apply: Process and Cycle
Applying to the ISF follows the pattern common to most national basic-research funders: an annual (or, for some tracks, periodic) call for proposals, an online submission through the ISF’s application portal, a structured application (project description, budget, CV/track record, and — depending on the track — letters or supporting documentation), and external peer review feeding into a committee decision. Some tracks, including Beresheet, use a two-stage process — an initial registration or short application, followed by an invitation to submit a full application only for candidates who clear the first stage. Because the ISF adjusts specific deadlines, forms, and portal requirements between cycles, the authoritative source for current-cycle dates and forms is always the ISF’s own website rather than any third-party summary, including this one.
Peer Review and Selection
Like most basic-research funders organized under a national academy of sciences, ISF proposals go through external peer review — typically international referees with relevant subject-matter expertise — followed by evaluation from a discipline-specific review committee that makes the funding recommendation. Selection is explicitly merit-based and competitive: given the ISF’s broad disciplinary scope and finite annual budget, most tracks are oversubscribed relative to available funding, and reviewers weigh scientific originality and rigor most heavily rather than applied potential.
How ISF Fits Into Israel’s Broader Research-Funding Landscape
The ISF is Israel’s main basic-research funder, but it is not the only source of Israeli research funding a research administrator may encounter. The Israel Innovation Authority funds applied/industrial R&D rather than basic science; the US-Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF) funds bilateral US-Israel collaborative projects specifically; and international award programs with an Israeli track, such as the Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists (whose Israel track is co-administered with the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities), sit alongside rather than inside the ISF’s own grant portfolio. Research offices supporting Israeli or Israel-collaborating investigators should treat these as a family of related but administratively separate funders, not a single funding pipeline.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the Israel Science Foundation a government agency?
Not directly — it is administered by the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, an independent national academy, though the large majority of its funding comes from the Government of Israel. This is a common structure internationally: a government-funded but academy-administered basic-research foundation.
Does “ISF” always mean the Israel Science Foundation?
No. In clinical research specifically, “ISF” much more commonly refers to the Investigator Site File, the set of essential documents a trial site maintains for GCP compliance — a completely unrelated concept. Always check context; this guide covers the Israeli funding agency.
What is the ISF’s flagship grant program?
Individual Research Grants — its largest, annual, discipline-open competitive track for basic research led by a principal investigator or small team.
Is the ISF the same as the US-Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF)?
No. They are separate organizations. The ISF is Israel’s domestic national basic-research funder; the BSF is a distinct bilateral foundation dedicated specifically to funding collaborative research between US and Israeli investigators.
Who is eligible to apply for ISF grants?
Eligibility is generally limited to researchers affiliated with recognized Israeli universities, research institutes, other higher-education institutions, and hospitals, with additional track-specific criteria (for example, career-stage requirements for the Beresheet program). Applicants should confirm current eligibility rules directly with the ISF or their institution’s research office.
