Book Description

This study provides a general assessment of the science and technology (S & T) and research and development (R & D) landscape in Israel, one of the world's most prolific innovators in advanced technologies, particularly information and communication technology (ICT). Israel is widely seen as Silicon Valley-like, and perhaps second only to Silicon Valley as an exemplification of the phenomenon of a start-up intensive, entrepreneurship-led "high-tech cluster." The report is organized in four major sections. The first, an introductory section, summarizes the factors that account for the "takeoff" of the Israeli high-tech cluster in the early 1990s and for its continued flourishing. The second section presents the key indicators of Israel's strengths as an R & D-based innovating economy, including "input" indicators, such as R & D expenditures and human capital, and "output" indicators, including patents, publications, the number of high-tech start-ups, and the contribution of high-tech products and high-tech exports to the overall Israeli economy. The third section focuses on government policy decisions and actions that have played a crucial role in Israel's emergence and current standing as a high-tech powerhouse. The fourth section discusses Israel's achievements and trends in the country's key technology sectors and emerging sectors: information and communication technologies; biotechnology; nanotechnology; "cleantech" or environmental technologies; military technologies; aerospace; and unconventional weapons. The report concludes that the Israeli high-tech cluster is thriving, despite the global implosion of ICT in the early twenty-first century, and notwithstanding Israel's persistent security problems. Israel's high-tech cluster seems to be resilient, in part because of the benefits that the presence of other firms, by definition, bestows on the individual firms within the cluster.