Britain and Israel have announced an increase in support for a bilateral science and technology research fund.

Following last week's meeting between prime ministers John Major and Yitzhak Rabin, a joint declaration was issued in which both sides noted the importance of science and technology links between the two countries and confirmed that government support for collaborative research under a scheme first set up last year would be doubled.

The first call for proposals within the scheme's framework (in the fields of biotechnology, molecular biology, high performance materials, and electro optics) attracted 164 applications, a significant proportion of which were deemed of high quality.

The original financial commitment of the two governments was enough to support only ten of the proposed projects.

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A spokesman for the Israeli ministry of science emphasised that many of the research proposals submitted following the first call for proposals were in research areas identified as being of national importance. The quality and number of applications received prompted discussions between the British Office of Science and Technology and its Israeli counterpart that resulted in the increased funding announced this week.

Both the British and Israeli governments have undertaken to double their contributions to Pounds 200,000 a year each.

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Together with comparable sponsorship from private sources, the scheme is now able to offer more than Pounds 1.8 million for collaborative research in the specified fields.