How the Zimin Institute and Foundation supports innovation

Web content editor Ian Bolland spoke to Dr. Mark Shmulevich, head of Zimin Institutes & board member of the Zimin Foundation.

Founded in 2017, the Zimin Institute for Engineering Solutions Advancing Better Lives supports the development and commercialisation of scientific and technological solutions that have “high potential for positive, real-world impact”.

It supports interdisciplinary projects in healthcare, life sciences, medicine, brain studies and artificial intelligence, with topics including, among others, precision medicine, quantitative microscopy, deep learning, advanced sensors, and digital health technologies.

Shmulevich said: “We come in during the research phase, but it is not at a very early stage. We would like to see the team that has already been working on something transformational and they understand that they are moving towards an applied solution or technology; that they can already envision and shape how the real-world application of what they’re working on can look like.

“They can already foresee that in two, three years’ time that it’s something very, very practical. This is where we come in.”

The Institute started in Israel but Shmulevich says the concept is a global one. It’s expanding in Israel and he expects ultimately for a cluster of institutes established. One currently operates in Tel-Aviv with a second in the pipeline before expanding into other countries.

“The idea is that pretty soon the project will be global and representing continents and we’ll have a family of research projects supported by the Foundation.

“The first institute we had was devoted mostly to engineering in healthcare, and we’re now discussing one institute not open yet. It will be devoted to healthcare too, but will tackle it more from the algorithmic, data and AI side. In the existing institute at Tel Aviv University we have so far supported nine projects, with research grants around $100,000 per year.”

Specific projects The Zimin Institute has supported include helping researchers from Tel Aviv University develop printed cardiac patches with integrated sensors and actuators to regenerate infarcted hearts; and a multimodal brain-computer interface based on artificial intelligence for rehabilitation of people with motor disorders.

The Zimin Institute was established by the Zimin Foundation, a philanthropic organisation dedicated to advancing knowledge, science and education. It was founded by Dr. Dmitry Zimin, a radio scientist and entrepreneur. His son Boris Zimin is now actively involved in the Foundation’s activities. First established in Russia in 2002, the Zimin Foundation now operates globally.

An example of the Foundation’s work outside of Israel and Russia is its support of young scientists at the School for Molecular and Theoretical Biology (SMTB) in Barcelona on life science research topics. Since its creation in 2012, it allows secondary school students to choose projects that focus on medical or practical areas such as work on cancer genomics or biochemical engineering of new biological systems. This year, students from 11 countries were accepted to SMTB.

It’s not just during his time at the Zimin Institute where Shmulevich has experience in innovations. In 2012 he was appointed deputy minister for ICT of Russia, responsible for IT policy making and industry support. This means he can provide a governmental perspective into how innovators can be supported – including in the area of taxation.

“I think it is very important to have special tax regimes that are beneficial for some part of business operations and R&D. The parts of the activities that are specific for innovation processes.

“I would focus on the low tax but not general tax on any business or research process but on some processes that are especially important for the innovation activities.”