Chartered by law in 1961, the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities acts as a national focal point for Israeli scholarship in both the natural sciences and the humanities. The Academy consists of approximately 115 of Israel's most distinguished scientists and scholars, who, with the help of the Academy's staff and committees, monitor and promote Israeli intellectual excellence, advise the government on scientific planning, fund and publish research of lasting merit, and maintain active contact with the broader international scientific and scholarly community.
As stated in the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities Law, the goals of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities are:
- To enlist as its members distinguished scholars and scientists resident in Israel
- To cultivate and promote scholarly and scientific endeavor
- To advise the government on activities relating to research and scientific planning of national significance
- To maintain contact with parallel bodies abroad
- To ensure the representation of Israeli scholarship and science at international institutions and conferences
- To publish writings calculated to promote scholarship and science
- To engage in any other activity calculated to serve the aforesaid objectives.
The Academy founded and provides administrative support to the Israel Science Foundation (ISF) and Israel's Focal Initiatives in Research in Science and Technology (FIRST) program. It also founded and provided initial administrative support to Israel's new National Council for Research and Development (NCRD).
