IRCF - Israel Research Core Facilities - is a national database any researcher can access through a new website: Israel-Cores.org. The database makes the information on research-supporting infrastructures in Israel clearly and efficiently accessible to all potential users, thus in order to maximize the use of existing infrastructures. At the same time, professional networks are being established that connect all experts and service providers in the various research infrastructure centers by field.

The State Comptroller insisted on the need to regulate the subject of research infrastructure in a report published in May 2021, which indicated that expensive infrastructure is not utilized at full scale. Through the sharing of knowledge, the database provides a response to the need of researchers in the various research institutions to access research infrastructures and for specialists who will operate the designated equipment, which is located in other institutions and otherwise would not have been brought to their attention. The availability of information about research infrastructure will allow institutions to maximize the utilization of expensive equipment and allow researchers to use equipment to which they would not have access to, otherwise.

Thus, in relation to the current situation, in which each research institution in the academy, at hospitals, or at government institutions has its own research supportive unit whose information is not accessible to other institutions. In order to leverage and enhance the contribution of these centers to the advancement of research in Israel, the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology has established a national knowledge center for the accessibility of research infrastructures, designed to connect the institutional centers at the national level.

The database already includes the mapping of 800 scientific services in 62 different infrastructure facilities, and about 300 scientific staff members from about 20 partner institutions, in 33 disciplines. The mapping is now with an emphasis on the fields of biomedicine, and in the next two years there will be a mapping of the infrastructure centers in the other fields of research (chemistry, physics, engineering, etc.), and the existing capabilities of Israeli industry in these fields will be made accessible.

* Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology Director General, Hila Haddad Khmelnik*: "The State of Israel must be very efficient in its investments in research and development, this is the only way we can lead the global ecosystem of applied science with our limited resources. The future of Israeli high-tech is research and development in areas that require advanced research infrastructures; The pooling of resources to be enabled by the knowledge center will be a growth engine and will provide Israeli industry with the tools to fulfill its potential and a competitive advantage over the world. I call on all research institutes nationwide to make use of the accessible research infrastructure through IRCF, and the entire Israeli industry will benefit from this."

* The Forum of Chief Scientists Director and the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology Chief Scientist, Prof. Avi Domb:* "The establishment of a research infrastructure center serves and will serve research in all its forms, from basic research in academia to open research in industry. These infrastructures will allow Israeli scientists access to the most recent and advanced equipment worldwide, as well as to be part of a productive and challenging scientific community.  In addition, it will allow policymakers to understand where resources should be invested in new equipment that will prevent duplication and bring the necessary means for research."