Harvard University announced two new partnerships on Monday that it says “promise to bolster the university’s academic engagement with Israeli institutions and create greater opportunities for students and researchers.”
The Ivy League university plans to start offering credit for study abroad at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in the spring 2026 semester, and Harvard Medical School will award Kalaniyot postdoctoral fellowships in biomedical research to Israelis. The latter program is funded by the Blavatnik Family Foundation and the Dorot Foundation.
Harvard’s collaboration with Ben-Gurion University of the Negev “is the latest in Harvard’s long and rich history of engagement with institutions of higher education across Israel,” stated Mark Elliott, Harvard’s vice provost for international affairs. “I have no doubt that it will contribute both to transformative experiences for students and to increased academic collaboration across the region in the coming years.”
Naama Kanarek, assistant professor of pathology at Boston Children’s Hospital and a faculty leader of the Harvard Medical School Kalaniyot program, stated that “we look forward to the benefits of academic exchange with these researchers, as well as the strengthened ties between HMS and researchers across Israel that will result.”
