Dr Aliza Inbal and Caylee Talpert, the Director and Deputy Director of the Pears Program for Global Innovation at Tel Aviv University will be visiting Kenya next week (Feb. 2-6) to take part in the Sankalp Forum. The Pears Program works to transform Israeli into an important source of technological innovation addressing developing world challenges, through both direct support to innovators and entrepreneurs and through development of government support programs and funds. Amongst our achievements to date are initiating the founding of Grand Challenges Israel, an Israeli governmental program funding Israeli innovation in the fields of health, water and agriculture, and launching Israeldev, a several-thousand member strong network in Israel of people from the private, public and academic sectors interested in technological innovation for development.
One of our program's flagship activities is the
Pears Challenge, a fellowship program which takes experienced Israeli innovators and entrepreneurs and supports them through the process of ideation and business formation in fields relevant to developing countries. This year, we will be focusing the challenge on agriculture in Kenya. Pears Challenge fellows will be Israelis which rich entrepreneurial and innovation experience and a desire to launch ventures targeting the needs of the global poor but lacking a deep understanding of the opportunities, needs, challenges, culture and conditions in Kenya.