During its first five years, Ben-Gurion University's Goldman Sonnenfeldt School of Sustainability and Climate Change has become a world leader in dryland research. It runs a delegation to the UN's climate conference, trains government officials, and broadcasts to thousands of Israeli teenagers. The school works across sectors, from agricultural innovation and methane reduction to policy formation, reflecting a strategic investment in climate solutions as geopolitical instability threatens international scientific collaboration.
Prof. Shimon Rachmilevitch, the school's head, describes its mission in deliberately broad terms. “The name is ‘school,’ but in truth it's much more than that,” he said. The Goldman Sonnenfeldt School builds on BGU's five decades of dryland research, a field where the university has long held standing as a world leader. Five years ago, the university organized that expertise around an interdisciplinary mission: addressing climate, desertification, and sustainability through coordinated research across multiple disciplines.
The Research Reality
The school brings together more than 190 researchers in engineering, medicine, literature, social work, agriculture, energy, water studies, and geography. Rachmilevitch's own research reflects that approach: his team has found ways to raise sweet potato yields by at least 50%, working with specialists in plant science, food anthropology, and policy analysis. They're also studying how to make the crop easier to harvest and improve its nutritional profile, turning academic findings into practical applications.
Other projects tackle distinct challenges. One aims to reshape the gut microbiome of dairy cattle to cut methane emissions, a major greenhouse gas, by as much as 20% to 30%. Another turns urine into fertilizer to address water and nitrogen scarcity, the two limiting factors for agriculture in dry regions. The school spends over NIS 1 million annually on postgraduate scholarships and has launched a bachelor's degree in sustainability, which students can combine as a double major with subjects ranging from physics to archaeology.
Rachmilevitch expects demand for sustainability expertise to grow significantly. “In just a few years, every company, every institution will have a sustainability office, and a head of sustainability,” he said, pointing to IBM and Microsoft, which already have sustainability departments.
Training the Next Generation
Each year, Ben-Gurion is the only university to send a committee to the UN Climate Change Conference and broadcast live from the summit to roughly 5,000 Israeli high school students. That work prompted the launch of an annual Youth Climate Conference in 2025, jointly run with the Education Ministry. Each year, organizers choose 40 schools to present sustainability projects. BGU mentors students before they present their work to the president of Israel at his climate forum. The school also awards an annual stipend for the best environmental high school thesis.
The university partners with the Health Ministry and the Heschel Center for Sustainability to train senior officials in climate management, including sending participants to Europe to study international models. BGU has also launched a public climate-data platform, ipcc.bgu.ac.il, with interactive graphs tracking temperature, wildfire activity, and other climate indicators.
Regional Diplomacy Through Science
BGU's Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research hosts the professor who serves as Israel's official point of contact to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification. Working alongside the Foreign Affairs Ministry, the school leads Israel's delegation to related international conferences, including one in Mongolia in August. Its biennial Drylands, Deserts and Desertification conference, jointly run with UNCCD, attracts roughly 1,000 participants from around the world.
The school's National Institute for Climate and Environmental Policy works with Jordan, the Palestinian Authority, and Cyprus. Its high school climate conference model has also reached Kenya, with Malawi under consideration. “We still haven't given up hope” on cooperation with Israel's Arab neighbors, Rachmilevitch said, pointing to partnerships with Jordan and the PA.
Rachmilevitch described the challenge in terms of geography, not geopolitics. “All Israel is one dryland,” he said, explaining that classification depends on the relationship between water entering and leaving an area. Drylands cover roughly 45% of Earth's land surface.
Funding and International Headwinds
The school's growth followed a donation from Michael Sonnenfeldt, who committed $1 million annually for 20 years and helped attract further government and international investment. “Money brings money when people see that things are happening,” Rachmilevitch said. “The government even starts to invest. The Kenyan government starts to invest. When they see there is some seriousness behind it, they are willing to help it grow.”
Rachmilevitch said international collaborations have grown harder as the war has diverted budgets and some partners have become more hesitant to collaborate with or visit Israel. “As an academic, this is what we do all the time,” he said. “We always submit grants, and for most of them we get rejections.” He argued that BGU's academic credibility helps the university keep attracting partners. “I feel that we have established a significant reputation as an academic institution, so it lowers the effect” of the political situation on BGU's international efforts.
Rachmilevitch sees the university's dryland research as an early view of challenges that may spread worldwide. “Because of the research we are doing today, when desertification and climate change become an imminent challenge, we will be ready. We are preparing here now for what may happen in France in 10 years,” he said.
Why This Matters:
Ben-Gurion University's work shows how Israeli institutions continue operating and contributing to global knowledge during conflict, even as international partnerships face real constraints. Its research has practical uses beyond Israel's borders: agricultural yields, methane reduction, and water management matter to dryland regions worldwide. The school's ability to maintain and expand international collaboration despite geopolitical friction suggests academic credibility and demonstrated results can sustain partnerships when political ties are strained. For Israel, institutions like BGU offer both scientific contributions and soft power benefits at a moment when both matter strategically. Rachmilevitch's challenge—attracting international partners and funding amid regional instability—reflects a broader reality: sustained conflict creates friction for every kind of cooperation, even efforts aimed at universal problems.