The National Centre of Meteorology, NCM, has announced its updated research areas as part of the UAE Rain Enhancement Programme, UAEREP's fourth cycle; placing strong focus on innovation and emerging technologies.

In a statement Wednesday, NCM said that UAEREP's 4th cycle targeted research areas are: Advances in weather modelling and forecasting, evaluation of rain enhancement efficacy, innovations of rain enhancement systems, fundamental understanding of rain enhancement, modeling and data analysis, and observations, technologies and instrumentation.

The announcement of the targeted research areas of the programme's future awarded projects comes in preparation for the official opening of UAEREP's fourth cycle for proposal submission in early 2021.

Identified by a team of prominent international experts and scientists in atmospheric research and technologies, the updated research areas complement the existing ones and build on the programme’s previous work. These areas were selected during the 4th cycle UAEREP solicitation workshop, based on the outputs of the nine research projects awarded between 2015 and 2017, the 4th International Rain Enhancement Forum, the recommendations from the World Meteorological Organisation, WMO, expert meeting held in Geneva and the 4th cycle programme solicitation workshop.

Dr. Abdulla Al Mandous, Director of NCM and President of the Regional Association II (Asia) of WMO, said, "In announcing the programme’s updated targeted research areas, we are taking an important step in pushing forward the rain enhancement research to the next level of impact and sophistication. One important aspect of the new solicitation document will be its emphasis on the development and deployment of innovative technologies to foster future research in this emerging field.

"This focus will improve our ability to address water-stress issues more effectively in line with the aspirations of our leadership, while enhancing the UAE’s position as a global hub for rain enhancement."

UAEREP, he said, aims to attract new researchers, technologists and entrepreneurs to further develop local and global capacity in this field. While doing so, we seek to bring new perspectives to rain enhancement research and support the development of demand-driven solutions that can address the most pressing water-security challenges in the years to come."

For her part, Alya Al Mazroui, Director of the UAE Research Programme for Rain Enhancement Science, said that the research areas identified by our international experts and scientists create unexplored avenues for generating new knowledge and innovation in rain enhancement science, while also building on the results and expertise gained over the programme’s nine awarded projects.

In parallel, the programme will continue to support previously targeted areas to help the awardees fulfill the objectives of their projects.

Launched under the patronage of H.H. Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs, in 2015, the UAE Research Programme supports innovative research and technology proposals that advance the field of Rain Enhancement Science, particularly in arid regions.

The programme offers each winning research proposal a grant of up to US$1.5 million distributed over three years with a maximum annual amount of US$550,000.

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