Dubai: The UAE Programme for Rain Enhancement Science has so far attracted significant participation from leading international experts in the field, an official said on Tuesday.
The programme offers a grant of $5 million (Dh18.350 million) over a three-year period to be shared by up to five winning research proposals. These proposals will be selected through a two-stage merit review decision process.
“So far, the programme has succeeded in attracting significant offers of participation from some of the leading international experts in the field. We are looking forward to working with some of the most important scientists and researchers in the field of rain enhancement,” Alia Mazroui, Director of the UAE Programme for Rain Enhancement Science, said to an international audience at the Global Forum for Innovations in Agriculture.
The forum is an event being held under the patronage of Shaikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs and Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Food Control Authority, at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre.
“As water security has become an increasingly important issue, we wish to encourage institutions, research teams and individual scientists to investigate new means of increasing rainfall not only in the UAE but in arid and semi-arid areas all over the world,” Alia said.
The programme, which is overseen by the Ministry of Presidential Affairs and under the management of the National Centre of Meteorology and Seismology, was launched at the beginning of this year with the aim of placing the UAE at the international forefront of rain enhancement science by stimulating investment in research in this field for the benefit of the UAE and other arid and semi-arid regions around the world.
The competition requires local and international, public and private, non-profit and for-profit organisations and individuals to submit their proposals before March 16.
The first round of awards will be announced in January 2016.
