Australia–Israel medical ties need follow-through

On 17 June 2026, at a Melbourne reception marking Israel’s Independence Day, then Victorian premier Jacinta Allan announced plans for a long-term partnership between Victoria and leading Israeli hospitals. The announcement was an encouraging commitment to medical cooperation, but its lasting value will depend on whether researchers and clinicians develop relationships that produce meaningful scientific advances and, ultimately, better care for patients.

That ambition also gives Australia’s Jewish community a constructive role. Connections with Israel are often discussed in political and cultural terms. However, less attention is given to the professional networks linking researchers, physicians, entrepreneurs and philanthropists across the two countries. These relationships can help medical institutions move beyond introductions and identify shared challenges worth addressing together.

There are already useful examples of what such connections can achieve. In 2017, Melbourne’s Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute signed an agreement with Jerusalem’s Hadassah Medical Center to support cardiovascular and diabetes research, including researcher exchanges. In 2018, J-Wire reported that research exchanges between Baker and Israeli institutions had benefited from the support of a donor from Melbourne’s Jewish community. In 2023, Baker also hosted an innovation fellowship for Victorian medical researchers led by an Israeli life-sciences entrepreneur. Together, these initiatives show how professional ties can develop into practical research cooperation and opportunities to exchange expertise.

Building on those experiences, the next step should be to make medical research connections between Australia and Israel more systematic while keeping them focused and practical. An effective partnership begins with a scientific or medical question that both sides genuinely want to answer. In oncology, for example, one institution might have a promising experimental approach while another offers complementary clinical knowledge or research capabilities. The value lies not in placing prestigious institutional names on an agreement, but in creating a collaboration that improves what each team could accomplish independently.

Such collaboration requires more than an occasional conference, because genuine progress depends on repeated contact among scientists and clinicians, opportunities for early-career researchers to work with colleagues abroad, and institutional leaders who remain engaged after the initial announcement. A few well-chosen projects, supported over time, may achieve considerably more than an ambitious list of commitments without sustained follow-through.

These exchanges should also work in both directions. Israel brings considerable strengths in biomedical research and entrepreneurship, while Australia has its own capabilities in medical research, clinical care and research infrastructure. Neither should be viewed simply as a teacher or a student. The objective is to combine different strengths, compare approaches and learn from each other’s experience.

Importantly, Israel and Australia also face a similar challenge in translating promising biomedical discoveries into medicines that reach patients. Both countries have strong academic research capabilities, yet scientific discoveries do not automatically become successful treatments. Moving from the laboratory into clinical development requires specialised expertise, careful evaluation of scientific and clinical risks, and sustained cooperation between academic researchers and the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. Australia’s own Medical Science Co-investment Plan recognises the difficulties involved in advancing promising research through the stages of medical product development. While the research environments in the two countries differ, both stand to benefit from stronger connections between scientific discovery and the expertise needed to develop new medicines.

This shared challenge is directly relevant to an initiative I have established at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, designed to bring senior pharmaceutical and biotechnology leaders into closer contact with academic researchers. As reported by Israeli news outlet Ynet News and scientific publication The Scientist, the initiative includes a graduate course planned for 2027, opportunities to engage with promising research programs and a proposed Pharma-Academic Strategic Task Force. The aim is to help researchers better understand the decisions and evidence required to advance scientific discoveries towards clinical development while building lasting relationships with industry specialists. The initiative is still developing, so its outcomes cannot yet be assumed. However, it offers an opportunity to examine which forms of sustained engagement help bridge the gap between academic discovery and medicine development.

Because Australia faces similar challenges, I see the experience gained through this initiative as directly relevant to its medical research community. As the initiative progresses, I intend to share what we learn with Australian universities, medical research institutions and scientific leaders, including which approaches prove useful and which need further refinement. Australian colleagues can contribute their own experience in clinical research, research organisation and institutional collaboration. In this way, lessons emerging from the Israeli initiative could help Australian researchers strengthen connections with pharmaceutical and biotechnology expertise, while Australian experience could also inform how the initiative develops in Israel. The objective is a genuine exchange of practical knowledge that both countries can adapt to their own research environments.

Victoria’s proposed partnership with Israeli hospitals offers a timely setting for this kind of cooperation. Participating institutions should begin by identifying a small number of shared medical questions, establishing teams with complementary expertise and committing to sustained collaboration. Progress should then be evaluated through tangible research outcomes, training opportunities, new clinical connections and lessons shared between institutions, rather than simply counting agreements or visits.

Australia’s Jewish community can help create the conditions for such collaborations by connecting professionals, encouraging introductions and, where appropriate, helping support research exchanges. However, universities, hospitals and public agencies must remain responsible for the scientific priorities and the work itself. Community networks are most valuable when they help people find one another and maintain relationships that institutions can develop further.

At a time when Australia–Israel relations are often discussed primarily through political disagreements, sustained medical cooperation offers another way to engage. It does not remove those disagreements, but it can bring researchers and clinicians together around shared questions and the needs of patients. The success of the June announcement should ultimately be measured by the work that follows and by the knowledge that continues to flow between Australia and Israel.

Professor David Adler is Chief Scientific & Medical Officer of the PATHORA Institute of Pathology & Tissue Medicine. He has more than 15 years of experience in oncology drug development and translational medicine, including a decade in senior leadership at Bayer AG’s Global Oncology Clinical Development organisation. He holds academic appointments at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and the University of Bonn.