The Ministry of Science and Technology initiated In 1995 a support program for the development of scientific technological infrastructures.

Five fields of top national priority were defined, fields in which Israel holds a leading position and a relative advantage in the International Knowledge front:

• Electro-optics
• Biotechnology
• Information and Teleprocessing
• Advanced Materials
• Microelectronics

National committees were established for each field in order to pinpoint and promote technologies which would promote research in Israel. These complex technologies require knowledge, expertise, and special equipment which could be used in a large number of infrastructural research projects.

These infrastructure laboratories were upgraded on 2002, and became "Infrastructural Knowledge Centers". Unique working protocols were established especially for these Knowledge Centers, different from normal research projects.

The Centers' role is to help with the assimilation of new age advanced technologies. The intention is mainly to deal with advanced and expensive equipment systems which are out of the reach of any single scientific institution, accompanied by an expert crew to operate the equipment and its technological uses.

The objective of the Knowledge Centers is to allow the most advanced and innovative technologies to be equally accessible to the entire researchers community in Israel, in the academy, industry, research institutes, and elsewhere.

Infrastructural Knowledge Centers must be:

• Unique in Israel
• Leading in their field
• Imperative to the development of the field
• Headed by a senior active scientist who stands in the front line of the field.
• The center should be based on existing academic infrastructure, in the research institute or industrial facility, and should be providing services to a variety of researchers.

Every Knowledge Center was appointed by steering committee, comprised of representatives from the Ministry of Science and Technology, Host institute and external experts.
The Committee's objective is to provide advice for the Knowledge Center, the Institute and to the Ministry of Science and Technology, in regards to the Knowledge Center.
In addition to scientific and professional help offered to the knowledge centers, every steering committee assists the center in formalizing the protocol for its services provision, including a protocol for prioritization, in setting the service rates, and in forming a program for marketing the provided services.