81 Bar-Ilan Researchers Awarded ISF Grants in 2025–26

Eighty-one Bar-Ilan University researchers recently learned that they had been awarded research grants from the Israel Science Foundation (ISF), totaling more than NIS 25 million.

Seventy-eight researchers received individual research grants, 12 of whom were also awarded equipment grants. In addition, two grants were awarded through the Mavri biomedical research program, and one grant was awarded in the field of quantum science and technology.

The researchers who received grants are engaged in a broad and diverse range of fields. Some of their studies advance fundamental science and scientific knowledge, while others have a direct impact on the lives of us all. Among other subjects, Bar-Ilan researchers are studying stem cell regulation, maternal cognitive decline resulting from fetal microchimerism, bond trading and trading quality in capital markets, teaching practices that foster self-regulated learning, and the neural mechanisms underlying associative learning.

Several of the studies make innovative use of artificial intelligence. AI is being applied to identify dynamics in depression treatment, examine decision-making processes, investigate enantiomers in terpene biosynthesis through molecular modeling, and conduct an archaeological analysis of legislative texts.

Other studies address the war and its consequences. These include research on music and sound during the Swords of Iron War and on young adults and their parents following a terrorist attack.

The Israel Science Foundation is Israel’s leading organization supporting scientific research. It promotes excellence by conducting a rigorous evaluation of research proposals. The grants will enable Bar-Ilan researchers to deepen their research, acquire advanced equipment, develop their work, and achieve significant accomplishments in their respective fields.

Equipment Grants: Advancing Science One Step Further

Twelve researchers received equipment grants in addition to their individual research grants. These grants will allow them to upgrade their laboratories, expand their areas of research, and advance their work even further.

Mid-career faculty equipment grants were awarded to Prof. Noa Agmon of the Department of Computer Science, Prof. David Ansel-Sifers of the Faculty of Medicine, Prof. Amos Danielli of the Faculty of Engineering, Prof. Cyrille Cohen of the Faculty of Life Sciences, Prof. Hamutal Slovin of the Gonda Multidisciplinary Brain Research Center, Prof. Eshkol Rafaeli of the Department of Psychology, and Prof. Yosef Shor of the Faculty of Engineering.

Equipment grants for new faculty members were awarded to Dr. Moshe Glickman of the Department of Psychology, Dr. Yair Daon of the Faculty of Medicine, Dr. Yatir Saadia of the Faculty of Engineering, Dr. Liel Sapir of the Department of Chemistry, and Dr. Ilya Yessin of the Department of Physics.

The Mavri Program: Improving Fertility and Examining the Effects of Bacteria

Two Bar-Ilan researchers received grants through the Mavri Program, which supports biomedical research in human health. The program aims to bring about a profound change in the scope and culture of biomedical research in Israel, strengthen and expand high-quality, sustainable research in the field, and foster collaboration between researchers at Israeli institutions of higher education and physicians from a variety of disciplines and specialties working in hospitals.

Dr. Nitzan Gonen received a grant of NIS 800,000 for her research on generating sperm in culture from testicular tissue and mouse and human stem cells. The research, conducted in collaboration with the Weizmann Institute of Science and Hadassah Medical Center, is part of Dr. Gonen’s extensive work in the field of male fertility.

Dr. Lior Lobel received a grant of NIS 625,000 for his research on the effects of bacteria found in urine on the development, growth, and detection of prostate cancer. Dr. Lobel studies how bacteria affect human health, and his research also examines the influence of gut bacteria on chronic kidney disease and cancer. The study is being conducted in collaboration with Sheba Medical Center.

The Future of Quantum Technologies

Dr. Hanan Herzig Sheinfux of the Department of Physics is Bar-Ilan’s recipient of a grant in the field of quantum science and technology.

The grant, totaling approximately NIS 2 million, was awarded for research conducted in collaboration with the Technion–Israel Institute of Technology on the nanophotonic and electrostatic control of materials from the TMD family, with the goal of developing engineered correlated states.

The funding includes an individual research grant of NIS 699,900 and an equipment grant of NIS 1,350,000.

This is the second consecutive year in which Dr. Herzig Sheinfux has received an ISF grant. Last year, he received an individual grant of NIS 1.5 million and an additional equipment grant of NIS 1.1 million.

Full List of Bar-Ilan University’s 2026 ISF Grant Recipients

Faculty of Exact Sciences

• Prof. Yoram Louzoun, Department of Mathematics: Computational methods for optimizing transplants and matching.
• Prof. Andrei Lerner, Department of Mathematics: Harmonic analysis on Banach function spaces.
• Prof. Assaf Rinot, Department of Mathematics: Combinatorics below aleph-omega.
• Dr. Hanan Herzig Sheinfux, Department of Physics: Quantum grant for the nanophotonic and electrostatic control of TMD materials.
• Dr. Ilya Yessin, Department of Physics: Light-controlled dynamics in quantum materials, as well as a new faculty equipment grant for high-performance computing.
• Prof. Noa Agmon, Department of Computer Science: Path planning for robot teams based on intermittent cooperation, as well as a mid-career equipment grant for a robotics environment supporting both cooperative and non-cooperative multi-robot research.
• Prof. Yael Amsterdamer, Department of Computer Science: Usage-driven data quality management.
• Prof. Yoav Goldberg, Department of Computer Science: Broad-coverage deep semantic information retrieval.
• Prof. Esther Ezra, Department of Computer Science: Range-searching techniques and their applications.
• Dr. Arnold Filtser, Department of Computer Science: Geometric decompositions of metrics and graphs.
• Dr. Alexander Shleyfman, Department of Computer Science: Abstraction heuristics for numerical and temporal planning.
• Dr. Moshe Glickman, Department of Chemistry: Computational research and design of multiferroic oxides.
• Dr. Amikam Levy, Department of Chemistry: Characterization and suppression of noise in quantum systems.
• Prof. Dan Thomas Major, Department of Chemistry: Enantiomers in AI-based terpene biosynthesis.
• Prof. Adi Salomon, Department of Chemistry: Tracking chemical processes at interfaces using far-field optics.
• Dr. Liel Sapir, Department of Chemistry: Molecular transport in polymer networks, as well as a new faculty equipment grant for computational infrastructure supporting simulations.
• Prof. Eliyahu Greenberg, Department of Chemistry: Sensitivity to norms beyond graded expressions.

Faculty of Life Sciences

• Prof. Eitan Okun: Mechanisms underlying maternal cognitive decline resulting from fetal microchimerism.
• Dr. Nitzan Gonen: A Mavri Program grant for research on generating sperm in culture from testicular tissue and stem cells.
• Prof. Cyrille Cohen: Decoding the strength of T-cell receptor signaling, as well as a mid-career equipment grant for a live-cell imaging system.
• Dr. Lior Lobel: A Mavri Program grant for research on the effects of bacteria found in urine on prostate cancer.
• Prof. Gad Miller: The role of the auxin pathway in the heat resistance of pollen grains.
• Prof. Itay Koren: Ubiquitin-independent protein degradation.
• Prof. Yoram Bonneh, School of Optometry and Vision Science: Hidden perception and cognition in profound autism.

Faculty of Engineering

• Prof. Sharon Gannot: Deep manifold learning of acoustic environments for audio processing.
• Prof. Amos Danielli: Biosensing and concentrated PCR in biological fluids, as well as a mid-career equipment grant for an automated diagnostic system.
• Dr. Ofir Lindenbaum: Foundation models for scientific tabular data.
• Prof. Rachela Popovtzer: Targeted liposomes for the systemic radiotherapy of tumors.
• Dr. Yatir Saadia: Oxyfluorides for thermoelectric applications, as well as a new faculty equipment grant for a transport-properties laboratory.
• Prof. Yosef Shor: An oscillator-based current sensor, as well as a mid-career equipment grant for computational resources supporting circuit simulations.

Faculty of Law

• Prof. Ittai Bar-Siman-Tov: AI-based archaeology of legislative texts: Actors and dynamics in the legislative process, from proposal to law.
• Prof. Ori Aronson: AI-based archaeology of legislative texts: Actors and dynamics in the legislative process, from proposal to law.
• Dr. Daniel Hayim: The migration of corporate governance in an era of cross-market capital.
• Prof. Adi Libson: Decoupling ESG from political polarization.
• Prof. Yuval Procaccia: The reasonableness doctrine through the lens of game theory.
• Prof. Shay Stern: Layered property and the influence of external affiliations.

Azrieli Faculty of Medicine

• Prof. David Ansel-Sifers: Regulation of stem cells in the hair cycle, as well as a mid-career equipment grant for instruments used to characterize the transcriptome.
• Dr. Yair Daon: Interactions between pathogens, as well as a new faculty equipment grant for a computational epidemiology laboratory.
• Dr. Yaakov Maman: Analysis of the components involved in RAG1 activity.
• Prof. Omry Koren: Intergenerational metabolic effects in gestational diabetes mediated by the microbiome.
• Prof. Meir Shamay: Characterization of enhancer components and proteins in Kaposi’s sarcoma-associated herpesvirus.

Faculty of Social Sciences

• Prof. Dana Atzil-Slonim, Department of Psychology: Identifying dynamics in depression treatment through the integration of artificial intelligence.
• Dr. Moshe Glickman, Department of Psychology: Detecting cognitive biases in evidence accumulation with the assistance of AI, as well as a new faculty equipment grant for a decision-making and artificial intelligence laboratory.
• Prof. Gil Diesendruck, Department of Psychology: Children’s evaluation of group beliefs.
• Prof. Yogev Kivity, Department of Psychology: Mentalization in everyday life among people with borderline personality disorder.
• Prof. Eshkol Rafaeli, Department of Psychology: Personalized psychotherapy, as well as a mid-career equipment grant for the ARLAB-WISE system.
• Dr. Ayelet Oreg, School of Social Work: Informal breast milk donations.
• Prof. Rachel Dekel, School of Social Work: Young adults and their parents following a terrorist attack.
• Dr. Hadas Tzur, Department of Criminology: Urban violence in Arab-Palestinian cities.
• Prof. Ron Peretz, Department of Economics: Random local competitions and the global distribution of wealth.
• Dr. Naomi Friedman-Sokuler, Department of Economics: The intergenerational consequences of land expropriation.
• Prof. Ori Schwarz, Department of Sociology and Anthropology: The effects of large language models on inequality in recruitment and education.
• Dr. Ilana Shpaizman, Department of Political Studies: Policy change in relation to controversial issues.
• Prof. Yevgeny Mugerman, School of Business Administration: Financial reporting and the pricing of uncertainty.
• Dr. Nir Milstein, School of Business Administration: The motivational effects of charisma on performance under pain.
• Prof. Mani Abudy, School of Business Administration: Bond trading and trading quality in capital markets.
• Prof. Guy Kaplanski, School of Business Administration: An analytical approach to the limits of statistical arbitrage.

Faculty of Humanities

• Dr. Ayelet Dassa, Department of Music: Musicking as identity work in dementia.
• Dr. Uri Yaakov, Department of Music: Music notation in the Latin world, 1000–1300.
• Dr. Naomi Cohn Zentner, Department of Music: Music and sound during the Swords of Iron War.
• Dr. Maria Esipova, Department of English Literature and Linguistics: Speech acts across different linguistic levels.
• Prof. Lior Laks, Department of English Literature and Linguistics: Diversification in the adaptation of loanwords.
• Dr. Or-El Beilinson, Department of General History: Youth politics in modern Europe.
• Prof. Daniela Dueck, Department of General History: Life and landscapes in Greek and Roman literature.
• Prof. Yosef Liebersohn, Department of General History: A new interpretation of Plato’s Gorgias.

Faculty of Jewish Studies

• Prof. Dotan Arad, Department of Jewish History and Contemporary Jewry: The lost archive of Cairo and its Jewish communities.
• Prof. Moshe Yagur, Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology: The lost archive of Cairo and its Jewish communities.
• Prof. Boaz Zissu, Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology: The material culture of Beta Israel communities.
• Dr. Rafael “Rafi” Lewis, Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology: The Latrun Fortress within its cultural and landscape context.
• Prof. Jonathan Rubin, Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology: Relics in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem.
• Prof. Ilil Baum, Department of Literature of the Jewish People: The formation of the Ladino language and cultural adaptation.
• Prof. Dov Cohen, Department of Literature of the Jewish People: The Ladino and French works of Jacques Loria.
• Prof. Roman Katsman, Department of Literature of the Jewish People: Hebrew-Russian literary symbiosis in Israel.
• Prof. Avidov Lipsker, Department of Literature of the Jewish People: Metamorphoses in modern Hebrew literature.
• Prof. Pinchas Roth, Department of Talmud and Oral Law: Responsa from 13th-century Languedoc.

Faculty of Education

• Dr. Annette Bamberger: Building the higher education pathway of Indian students in Israel.
• Prof. Meni Yaari: Monitoring comprehension and attention during reading.
• Associate Prof. Tova Michalsky: Teaching that fosters self-regulated learning.

Interdisciplinary Studies Unit

• Prof. Hamutal Slovin, Gonda Multidisciplinary Brain Research Center: Interactions in the center of the fovea, as well as a mid-career equipment grant for an optical system for research involving monkeys.
• Prof. Dana Cohen, Gonda Multidisciplinary Brain Research Center: Neural mechanisms of associative learning in the cerebellum.
• Prof. Hizky Shoham, Program for Hermeneutics and Cultural Studies: Rituals commemorating death for the nation in Zionism.