Deadline for UAE rain enhancement grant this week

The deadline for proposal submissions to the UAE Research Programme for Rain Enhancement Science will be on Wednesday.

ABU DHABI // The deadline for proposals to win a US$5 million grant from the UAE’s rain enhancement programme will be Wednesday, its manager has said.

The UAE Research Programme for Rain Enhancement Science is aimed at encouraging more investment in research and improving international cooperation to find ways to increase rainfall in arid and semi-arid regions.

It has so far received 91 pre-proposals from 398 researchers and scientists from 45 countries in the second cycle for the grant contest.

“By receiving the full proposals on the set deadline, we will have reached a new milestone phase in this second cycle of the research programme,” said Alya Al Mazroui, programme manager, according to Wam, the state news agency.

“We also expect participating full proposals to be of a high-calibre and very competitive since they offer innovative and promising scientific ideas that will add significant value to rain enhancement science.”

Fifteen pre-proposals were selected in May, and they cover topics such as the improvement of seeding materials performance, numerical modelling on aerosols and their role in cloud formation.

The full proposals will be reviewed from August 21 to September 22.

As many as five proposals will be selected this year to share the $5m (Dh18.36m) grant and will be selected based on scientific and technical merit, innovation and significance, approach, delivery plan, required resources and budget.

The winners will be announced in January during the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week.

Last year, three academics won the grant for their proposals on improving cloud seeding, using nanotechnology to accelerate water condensation, and developing algorithms to identify clouds capable of creating rain.

Meteorologists said this spring that cloud-seeding operations towards rain enhancement in the UAE played a role in the country’s record rainfall in March.

The weather agency measured 287 millimetres of rainfall in 24 hours in an area between Dubai and Al Ain on March 9 – the highest since official record-keeping began in 1977.