For the first time, Bar-Ilan University will collaborate with WeWork as part of the University’s strategy to make academic content accessible to a variety of communities and the public-at-large.
The cooperation will begin with a pilot program at the WeWork complex on Hazerem Street in Tel Aviv, which has approximately 900 members. Dr. Yariv Ben-Naim, of Bar-Ilan University’s Mina and Everard Goodman Faculty of Life Sciences, will deliver the inaugural lecture on Thursday, June 20.
Dr. Ben Naim’s overseas research concerns the development of a pest-resistant strain of medical cannabis. To advance this research a 70-square-meter secured greenhouse was recently constructed at Bar-Ilan University. A group of entrepreneurs, headed by former Shin Bet director and minister Yaakov Peri, is investing in Dr. Ben-Naim’s research.
“As an entrepreneur and an academic, I believe in interdisciplinary cooperation,” says Bar-Ilan University President Prof. Arie Zaban. “Knowledge has no bounds, and I believe that in the digital age in which we live the university’s role is to make research accessible and to share knowledge, thereby expanding our influence on society. From every such meeting the benefit is twofold because our researchers also gain from exposure to new realms.”
WeWork provides more than 466,000 community members around the world with the office space, community, and services – both physical and digital – needed to create their life’s work. Founded in New York in 2010 by Adam Neumann and Miguel McKelvy, the company currently has 485 locations in 105 cities in 28 countries around the world. Through its collaboration with Bar-Ilan University, WeWork will now offer its members academic content delivered by leading lecturers in their fields.
