In the fall of 2017, the Global Drylands Center, a unit of Arizona State University's Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability, released a call for proposals aiming to foster collaboration between ASU's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, a public research university in Israel. Successful proposals were funded and are starting to gear up.

As a result of a funded proposal, Senior Sustainability Scientist Enrique Vivoni, who teaches at ASU's School of Earth and Space Exploration, is visiting professor Tal Svoray at Ben-Gurion University to consolidate their research agenda. Their research is aimed at understanding ecohydrological controls on vegetation distribution patterns in drylands. While visiting the university, Vivoni will deliver a seminar titled “Channel transmission losses and streamflow yield in arid piedmont slopes.” This event is open to the public.