By MICHELE F. MIHALJEVICH

Indiana Correspondent

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — A recent trip to Israel by Indiana officials may lead to partnership opportunities with public and private entities in Indiana, according to Bruce Kettler, director of the state Department of Agriculture.

Kettler accompanied Gov. Eric Holcomb and a delegation including Secretary of Commerce Jim Schellinger, educators and business leaders on the May 6-11 trip.

The trip had an agriculture focus, Kettler noted. In addition, cybersecurity and autonomous vehicles were discussed. “There are opportunities for research in the public and private sectors. If you want to test your technology on a lot of acres, you can look to Purdue (University), for example.

“With cybersecurity and autonomous vehicles, the connections are even broader through Indiana University, Notre Dame or any higher education institution. There are a lot of potential connections here and also with private companies,” he said.

Kettler is looking forward to seeing investment in the state as a result of the trip. “I hope what we can do as a department and as a state is attract entrepreneurs, companies and startup companies to look at Indiana to invest here or bring technology to the state,” he explained. Kettler also hopes companies dealing in research can find a market in Indiana for their technologies.

Israel has more than 8 million people even though the country is about a quarter the size of Indiana.

“Israel is very innovative, very high-tech,” he pointed out. “They’re 60 percent desert and surrounded by not-so-friendly people. They’ve made the desert bloom. They knew in order to raise food they needed to do it on a small land mass in a desert.

“They also understand to try to do that just within Israel, there’s not enough of a market to make it work. They understand they need bigger markets to make those investments work. Indiana offers them the opportunity to make those investments worthwhile.”

While in Israel, Holcomb – representing the Indiana Economic Development Corp. (IEDC) board of directors – signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Israel Innovation Authority. It calls for officials in both countries to “identify 21st century challenges in agbiosciences, life sciences, technology and cybersecurity, and connect respective companies to work collaboratively on developing innovative solutions.”

Israel spends about 4.25 percent of its annual Gross Domestic Product on research and development, according to IEDC. Its level of entrepreneurial activity is second only to the Silicon Valley, with more than 6,500 innovative companies and one startup per every 1,600 people.

“Hoosiers are proud of the rich friendship we’ve developed with the state of Israel, and the MOU we’ve signed (May 9) takes this partnership to the next level,” Holcomb said. “Indiana and Israel are tech and agbiosciences powerhouses, and there are abundant opportunities for academic exchanges, mutual investment and cross-collaboration between our two states.”

Sherilyn Emberton, president of Huntington University, was on the trip and said she can see several opportunities for research collaboration.

“Partnerships in just technology alone bring so many people to the table,” she explained. “As a small, private institution, we’re trying to find matches, including in agriculture.”

Huntington’s Haupert Institute for Agricultural Studies opened in the fall of 2015. The university’s students have traveled to countries such as Israel and Turkey.

“Our ag students do a lot of work in water scarcity,” Emberton noted. “I hope they can be impactful with their knowledge there. I also hope to see people from Israel coming here. My hope is for our students in agriculture, technology and media to get a chance to see how small the world is and connect with others.”

Officials hope to begin asking for proposals related to agbiosciences from Indiana and Israeli companies within the next couple of months. “We’ve already had a lot of good dialogue with Aviv Ezra (consul general of Israel to the Midwest),” Kettler said.

“We hope to put him in contact with Purdue regarding an agriculture research component such as crop imagery. The culture of innovation they have (in Israel) is fascinating to see.”