For example, Professor Jeff Becker of the University of Tennessee along with Professor Levitzky and Professor Kulka of the Hebrew University have had a very positive experience collaborating together to study the molecular biology of cell membranes. BSF documented no less than 75 new discoveries that probably would not have been possible without foundation-supported collaboration. A 1999 external economic review took an in depth look at 10 BSF projects. The benefits accrue to the United States, to Israel and to both countries together. Since its inception, BARD has funded more than 800 projects in 41 states that have led to new technologies in drip irrigation, pesticides, fish farming, livestock, poultry, disease control and farm equipment.
New projects promote increased quantity, and improved quality of agricultural produce.
Tennessee institutions have not received any BARD grants in the last ten years, but the state still benefits from the fund's work. While on one hand pesticides are crucial to much modern agriculture, they have also become a contamination problem of rural water resources. This created a dilemma that BARD grantees tackled. BARD researchers developed a new economical procedure for diminishing water-born pesticides using the sun. In the laboratory, scientists tested 69 dye sensitizers that can oxidize pesticides when activated by visible light.