Every year, the Boris Mints Institute organizes a major international event around one or two of the global challenges that the Institute has been engaged with and contributed to strategic policy solutions towards mitigating or solving it. The Boris Mints Institute has been heavily invested in the past decade in contributing to research towards mitigating the growing water shortage in the MENA region and globally.

This year, between October 28th-29th, the Institute co-sponsored with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Austria and the globally leading research center IIASA (https://iiasa.ac.at/), located at Laxenburg near Vienna, “Together for Water: Science Diplomacy to Advance Regional Cooperation in MENA”. This unique workshop showcased how science-based dialogue can meaningfully support cooperation in one of the world’s most water-stressed and war-stricken regions in the world.

Hosted together with IIASA in Laxenburg, Austria, the event brought together diplomats, researchers, practitioners, and civil-society representatives from 22 different countries to examine shared challenges and solution to the growing water shortage in the region. Dignitaries of the highest status, from Egypt, Libya, Jordan, the UAE, Qatar, Turkey, Morocco and Tel Aviv University, engaged in friendly and concrete discussions highlighting the value of integrating scientific evidence with regional perspectives to strengthen policy planning, improve resilience, and create trust-building mechanisms across the MENA region.

For the Boris Mints Institute, this workshop underscored the importance of sustained, structured engagement around water security — a core pillar of our mission to promote strategic policy solutions to global challenges. The insights generated at the event provide a foundation for future joint initiatives, analytical work, and regional dialogues aimed at transforming shared water risks into shared opportunities. This gathering marks an important step forward, reinforcing the role of science diplomacy as a bridge between knowledge and action, and opening new venues of engagement for the Institute at the highest echelon of science and diplomacy in the MENA region, Europe and globally. For more information: https://iiasa.ac.at/news/nov-2025/together-for-water-science-diplomacy-to-advance-regional-cooperation-in-mena 

One of the past members of the BMI Advisory Board – Prof. Sergei K. Dubinin has passed, aged 74. We really appreciate the input that Prof. Dubinin has had on the foundational moments of the institute and extend our condolences to his loved ones.

BMI is proud to announce its partnership with the Blavatnik ICRC of Tel-Aviv University for the 15th International Cyber Week, taking place December 8th-11th 2025. The panel will focus on using narratives and their derivatives as effective means of achieving military and political goals in an armed conflict. As illustrated by the Swords of Iron War, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and other global conflicts – strategic use of disinformation as a tool brought wars in the 21st century into a new arena, where actors are able to spread harmful narratives on social media in order to persuade public opinion. This arena requires a new way of thinking and new tools to combat the threats that arise from malicious narratives. We gather top experts from Israel and the globe to discuss the issue and try to figure out solutions to the emerging challenge. The panel will take place on Monday, December 8th, 12:45-13:35 at the Jaglom Auditorium.

To attend and to get more information, please register here: https://cyberweektau.com/

The Boris Mints Institute at Tel-Aviv University was founded with the intention to encourage research, planning and innovative thinking to promote significant positive change in the world. BMI is focusing on finding strategic feasible solutions and funds innovative projects to enhance the welfare of communities around the globe. The Institute brings together top-tier academics, world leaders, and talented and passionate researchers from Tel Aviv University and other leading universities: http://www.bmiglobalsolutions.org/

The Boris Mints Institute’s (BMI) Five-Year Strategic Plan (2025–2030) focuses on four critical global challenges: inequality, the fragility of liberal democracies, climate-related infrastructure failure, and international conflict. Building on a decade of experience and success in sustainable development, BMI now shifts its primary efforts to address these underperforming areas through four dedicated research labs: (1) Institutions for Equitable Resource Distribution, (2) Institutions Supporting Liberal Values, (3) Sustainable Infrastructure Management (via the Archimedes Center), and (4) Conflict Resolution and Peace. The plan emphasizes practical, research-based policy solutions that go beyond market-based mechanisms, advocating for tools like Universal Basic Income and city-level governance reforms to restore democratic resilience and social equity.

Key research goals include modeling conflict escalations, understanding the spread of polarizing narratives, exploring time-use as a metric for well-being, and improving intergenerational mobility and infrastructure resilience. By coordinating interdisciplinary research across these labs and promoting global collaboration, the institute aims to address 13 of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), pushing back against global policy stagnation with actionable and innovative institutional solutions.

As part of our long tradition, we are launching our annual call for application for BMI, Ph.D. stipend support.  50% scholarships will be awarded to 15 leading Ph.D. students at Tel Aviv University, in the general areas of sustainable development, conflict resolution, democratic values and economics: preference will be given to innovative macro-economic project with direct impact on broad measures of welfare and well being.

Important Dates:

The last date of submission for the academic year of 2025-2026 is Sunday, August 31^st 2025 at midnight Israel Time.

Application:

Applicants will submit their application in the online application form at the formal website of BMI: https://bmiglobalsolutions.org/

The application must be supplemented by a letter of recommendation, submitted by the student’s Ph.D. advisor.  In their letter, the advisor will commit to supplement the stipend given by BMI with at least 50% stipend so that any student supported by BMI will be supported by at least 100% stipend.  The letter of recommendation will be sent to the formal e-mail of the institute at bminstitute@tauex.tau.ac.il . A second letter of recommendation will be sent to the same address by August 31 2025 by a scholar who is not the Ph.D. supervisor of the student, but can provide useful information on the student’s academic prospects.

Evaluation Criteria:

The applications will be evaluated by a committee of five scholars chaired by the Head of the Boris Mints Institute, Professor Itai Sened.  The awards will be subject to a final review of the steering committee of the institute. Evaluation criteria will include:

• Originality and innovation
• Potential contribution of the results of proposed study to strategic policy solutions to global challenges
• Relevance of the proposal to the four theme subjects mentioned above
• Combination of theory and empirical data
• Additional funding from other sources
• Approval the student to level 2 of the Ph.D. by the relevant academic unit.

Publications of results:

BMI will give preference to students whose work is most likely to be published in top academic Journals.

Please contact us for further questions and details only via e-mail at bminstitute@tauex.tau.ac.il    

BMI’s longstanding position of investing research and resources in optimizing the use and efficiency of photovoltaic technologies has become the official policy of the State of Israel – where roofs on commercial and residential real estate will feature PV systems as a step towards making the energy demands more self-sufficient, resilient and sustainable. From BMI’s founding – it supported countless projects that dealt with engineering and public policy aspects of the use of photovoltaics and solar energy. In addition to the research, BMI conducted the Arava seminars in cooperation with the Eilat Eilot Renewable Energy Initiative and supported the work done by its sister-institute, Archimedes. 

The original article can be found here: https://finance.walla.co.il/item/3760527

We convened for the Boris Mints Institute’s 10th Annual Conference at Tel-Aviv University under the urgent and timely theme: Addressing Crisis on All Fronts. Over two intense and inspiring days, we explored the challenges reshaping our world—from geopolitical conflict and legitimacy in warfare to urban resilience, cultural fault lines, and democratic inequality.