Joint research and innovation seed grants provide $200,000 to interdisciplinary teams

The University of Illinois System and The Hebrew University of Jerusalem recently awarded a total of $200,000 to four new interdisciplinary research teams that will drive innovations and advance collaboration between the universities. The projects are the fifth round of a joint research and innovation seed grant program that began in 2019.

The initiative seeks to accelerate economic development through the development of innovative technologies, building on talent, innovations and resources from the two universities. Funding for the program comes from The Hebrew University`s International Office and its Authority for R&D, and the University of Illinois System’s Office of the President and Office of the Vice President for Economic Development and Innovation.

The newly funded projects will focus on ways that large-language models affect causal discovery, using AI agents to develop virtual cells, deploying modularized learning for learning-based systems and using sensory signals to improve human-AI interaction.

“These projects focused on AI are truly on the cutting edge,” said Jay Walsh, the U of I System’s vice president for economic development and innovation. “I fully expect that they will advance understanding and application throughout the field. This seed grant program is a cornerstone in the partnership we continue to build with Hebrew University, its faculty and its students.”

Project teams were required to have participation from The Hebrew University and from one of the three U of I System universities. Proposals also had to focus on quantum science, or artificial intelligence (AI) – including applications of AI for the sciences, key areas of strength for both institutions.

"We are excited to launch the fifth round of joint research projects with the University of Illinois System,” said Guy Harpaz, HUJI’s Vice President for International Affairs. “The four new collaborative projects constitute a significant diversification of our joint endeavor to combine innovative research in all STEM and life sciences topics with a strong potential for technology development and commercialization, thus also making an important contribution to the economic development of both ecosystems. We are very much looking forward to further expanding and deepening our collaboration with the University of Illinois System.”

The projects receiving grants are:
• Joint learning of LLMs and causal discovery. Co-principal investigators: Gabriel Stanovsky, Faculty of Computer Science, Hebrew University, and Elena Zheleva, College of Engineering, University of Illinois Chicago.
• ChronoWeaver: An Agentic Framework for Automating the Construction of Temporally-Layered AI Virtual Cells: Barak Raveh, Faculty of Chemistry, Hebrew University, and Haohan Wang, School of Information Sciences, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
• Modular Learning for Efficient, Interpretable Learning-based Systems: Michael Schapira, Faculty of Computer Science and Engineering, Hebrew University, and Fan Lai, Grainger College of Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
• REMIX: Robust Embodied Multimodal Interface eXchange. Co-principal investigators: Michael Werman, Faculty of Computer Science and Engineering, Hebrew University, and Naira Hovakimyan, Grainger College of Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.