The Water Council has signed two agreements aimed at increasing collaboration and developing new water technology partnerships between the Milwaukee-based organization and Israel, Gov. Scott Walker’s office announced.
The council and the Israel Innovation Authority agreed to develop a research partnership in which Israeli and Wisconsin water technology companies will collaborate on developing new applications for MMSD and other Wisconsin water utilities.
The council and the Zuckerberg Institute for Water Research at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev also signed an agreement that calls for collaboration on water-related research.
The agreements were signed in separate ceremonies on Walker’s last full day of his trade mission to Israel.
“For the past year The Water Council has laid the groundwork for the development of these vitally important agreements, which will result in bringing together our two world water technology hubs,” said Dean Amhaus, president and CEO of The Water Council.
Under one of the agreements, The Water Council will receive $100,000 in research funds from the MMSD. The Israel Innovation Authority will match the funds and use them to allow Israeli companies to pilot innovative technologies at Wisconsin utilities, including cyber-focused technologies, data analytics for utility applications and stormwater-focused technologies.
The agreement calls for Israeli startups to come to the U.S. to commercialize their products for the North American market and MMSD will provide facilities for the companies to develop the technologies.
The other agreement, forged with the Zuckerberg Institute for Water Research at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, calls for collaboration on water-related applied research aimed at introducing new technologies into the global marketplace through the Water Equipment and Policy Center.
The WEP Center, which has offices and labs in the Global Water Center in Milwaukee, is a nonprofit organization led by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Marquette University. Its members include corporations like A. O. Smith, Badger Meter, and Dow, and government agencies, including the MMSD and Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.
The partnership will give Wisconsin universities and U.S. companies access to research being conducted by Zuckerberg Institute researchers.
