CIIRDF NEWS (http://www.ciirdf.ca)

• CIIRDF upcoming Board of Directors Meeting - to take place in Tel-Aviv on 29th of January 2004.  This will be CIIRDF's 18th board meeting whereby 5 joint R&D projects will be presented for the Board's approval. The meeting will follow a dinner the night before hosted by the new Canadian Ambassador to Israel - Mr. Don Sinclair whose last position was the Director General of the Middle East division in Canada's Foreign Ministry.
  
  

• Continuous work towards the Consortia-to-consortia collaboration are starting to bear fruits:
• In the Optical Communication area: the first feasibility study between a company from COPAC (Canadian Opto Electronics and Packaging Assembly Consortia) and a company from the Israeli Optipac consortia has materialized. 
• In the Stem-Cell area: An international event will take place on July 2004 and will involve Bereshit - the Israeli Stem Cell consortia and the Canadian Stem Cell Center of Excellenence.

• Agriculture R&D Collaboration last November, the Volcani Institute led an Israeli scientific team in a 3-day Canada-Israel discussion on research cooperation in agriculture, agri-foods and agbiotech.  Over 12 Canadian scientific leaders came from across Canada to participate.

• Bio2004 in Israel - CIIRDF in collaboration with the Israeli Economic Mission is putting together a major Canadian delegation to Biotech 2004 which will include Canadian companies associated with Pharmalogica, Stem Cells, Biodiagnostics, Biophotonics and Agbiotech.