Pharma and agriculture giant Bayer announced Sunday that it has signed a cooperation agreement with Ramot, the technology transfer company of Tel Aviv University, seeking to promote groundbreaking research from TAU in the fields of cybersecurity.
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The agreement was signed during a visit to Israel of a top Bayer executive delegation, that included, among others, Bijoy Sagar, Bayer's chief information technology and digital transformation officer, and Gary Harbison, head of cybersecurity and risk management, who were the driving force behind the move.
Ramot's CEO Keren Primor Cohen and Head of TAU's Blavatnik Interdisciplinary Cyber Studies Prof. Isaac Ben-Israel announced the planned collaboration during Cyber Week 2022, the annual international cybersecurity expo hosted by Tel Aviv University, saying the agreement will promote groundbreaking cybersecurity research at Tel Aviv University.
As for this unique and somewhat unnatural collaboration, in which a Life Science company such as Bayer, with core competencies in health and agriculture, strikes a research project in cyber Sagar noted.
"Complementing our comprehensive in-house expertise with the know-how of excellent partners from academia is integral to our innovation strategy. Our partnership with Tel Aviv University has the potential to spark innovation that one organization could not create on its own."
Hugo Hagen, Managing Director of Bayer Israel, said that Bayer "understands that our collective knowledge is more powerful than that of any single entity, therefore through innovative thinking and open dialogue, we can develop a broader, more diverse and future-ready technology capabilities."
As for the somewhat unusual focus of the partnership with TAU, Hagen said, "It's well known Israel has a unique and world leading ecosystem for innovation, and academia most certainly plays a vital part in fostering great innovations. I'm happy and proud Bayer is partnering with world-leading Tel Aviv University. This is just one example of a great initiative together with the University, but hopefully more to be announced soon."
Bayer has already identified a potential partner in Tel Aviv University to design a research project with, and continues investigating more options, confirms Yael Mor, Head of Cyber Hub at Bayer Israel.
Bayer is one of the largest pharmaceutical and life sciences conglomerates in the world. Its main areas of business include consumer healthcare products, agricultural chemicals, and seeds and biotechnology products. The company set up its offices in Israel in 2008 and currently employs 150. Worldwide, Bayer maintains a presence in 83 countries, employing some 100,000 people.
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