Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research

The Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research is part of the Ben-Gurion University, and is located in the Midreshet Ben-Gurion campus in the centre of the Negev desert in Israel.

The Institute was established in 1974 as a result of a recommendation made by the Israeli Council for Higher Education in 1972. It was named as the Jacob Blaustein Institute for Desert Research in 1980 after a donation to the university by the Jacob and Hilda Blaustein Foundation. The name was later changed to the Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research (BIDR), when it was split in three: the Zuckerberg Institute for Water Research, the French Associates Institute for Agriculture and Biotechnology of Drylands and the Swiss Institute for Dryland Environmental and Energy Research.