The UAE Research Program for Rain Enhancement Science explained

The United Arab Emirates Research Program for Rain Enhancement Science (UAEREP) is a global research initiative offering a grant of US$5 million over a three-year period to be shared by up to five winning research projects in the field of rain enhancement.

The cloud-seeding operations were initiated in the late 1990s in the UAE. By early 2001 these operations were being conducted in cooperation with the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Colorado, USA, the Witwatersrand University in South Africa and the US Space Agency, NASA.^[1]

Management of the Program

The United Arab Emirates Research Program for Rain Enhancement Science is an initiative of the United Arab Emirates Ministry of Presidential Affairs and was launched at the beginning of 2015 under the patronage^[2] of His Highness Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs. It is managed by Alya Al Mazroui and overseen by the National Center for Meteorology (United Arab Emirates)^[3] (NCMS) based in Abu Dhabi.^[4]

Goals of the Program

• Advance the science, technology and implementation of rain enhancement and encourage additional investments in research funding and research partnerships to advance the field.
• Increase rainfall and water security^[5] globally.

Four pathways have been identified to achieve those goals:

• Enhance the level of research and innovation in the field;
• Advance scientific understanding of rainfall enhancement;
• Advance state-of-the-art rainfall enhancement practices and operations;
• Enhance and further develop capacity in the field both locally and globally.

Selection Process

The research grant is awarded on a yearly basis. The Program invites innovative research and technology proposals from domestic or foreign, public or private, non-profit or for-profit organizations and, in some cases, individuals.^[6]

All of the proposals selected are subject to five criteria:

• Overall Scientific and Technical Merit, Significance and Innovation (30%);
• Approach, Project/Delivery Plan, Milestones and Deliverables (20%);
• Investigator/Team (20%);
• Required/Available Resources and Budget (20%);
• Capacity Building (10%).^[7]

Program cycles

The program had the following two cycles.

First cycle

The first cycle of the Program was announced on 20 January 2015. All awardees were selected by a merit review process^[8] and announced in January 2016.^[9] The awarded research projects were selected based on their ability to promote scientific understanding in the field of rain enhancement science and further develop related technologies, applications, and operations, as well as build capacity.

The three prize-awarded scientists leading the research teams that share this cycle's grant of US$5 million are:

• Masataka Murakami, Visiting Professor from the Institute for Space-Earth Environmental Research, Nagoya University (Japan). Researchers from the University of Tokyo and the Japan Meteorological Agency also contributed to his research project on innovative algorithms and sensors dedicated to identifying the clouds most suitable for seeding.
• Linda Zou, Professor of Chemical and Environmental Engineering from the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology (UAE). Prof. Zou has received contribution to her work on nanotechnology to accelerate water condensation from the National University of Singapore and the University of Belgrade. The research explores the different ways of employing current knowledge of nanotechnology to develop novel cloud seeding materials and make rain droplet formation more efficient.
• Volker Wulfmeyer, Professor, Managing Director and Chair of Physics and Meteorology at the Institute of Physics and Meteorology in the University of Hohenheim (Germany). His research project deals with cloud seeding optimization, and aims to specifically study convergence zones and land cover modification to enhance precipitation.

In 2015, in total, 325 scientists and researchers affiliated to 151 organizations applied to the Program. These researchers, drawn from 34 countries around the world, cooperated as scientific teams on the submission of a total of 78 pre-proposals.^[10]

Second cycle

Announced on January 19, 2016, the Program received 91 pre-proposals^[11] from 398 scientists, researchers, and technologists affiliated to 180 institutes from 45 nations.^[12] Candidates from 45 countries — including scientists and researchers from 15 new countries such as Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Canada, Colombia, Egypt, Georgia, Hungary, Mexico, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Sweden, and Turkey, sent proposals to the Program.

After a month-long initial review process, 15 pre-proposals have been shortlisted.^[13]

on 17 January 2017 The Second Cycle awardees were selected due to their innovative technologies, applications, and operations towards the scientific understanding in the field of rain enhancement science. The awarded scientists include ^{[14] [15]}

• Paul Lawson
• Hannele Korhonen
• Giles Harrison

Third cycle

The awardees of the Third Cycle of the Program were announced on 17 January 2018, during Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week (ADSW).^[16] The awarded research projects were led by researchers from Russia, USA and China. Selected from a highly competitive field, the awarded projects featured a range of innovative new scientific and technological approaches to rain enhancement. The three prize-awarded scientists leading the research teams that share the Third Cycle's grant of US$5 million are:

• Ali Abshaev,^[17] Doctor and Associate Professor at the Hail Suppression Research Center (Russia).^[18] His project seeks to create a new method of rain enhancement by stimulating convection and precipitation by using the energy of solar radiation. Preliminary studies using 3D models have demonstrated that artificial updraft can be created by heating up layers of the surrounding atmosphere, ultimately reaching condensation height.
• Eric W. Frew,^[19] an associate professor in the Ann and H.J. Smead Aerospace Engineering Sciences Department and Director of the Research and Engineering Center for Unmanned Vehicles at the University of Colorado Boulder (USA). His project involves an innovative approach towards the enhancement of precipitation based on the use of in-situ real time data to sense, target and implement cloud seeding with auto drones.^[20]
• Lulin Xue,^[21] Chief Scientist of Hua Xin Chuang Zhi Science and Technology LLC (China). The core objectives of his proposed study are to improve knowledge of hygroscopic seeding impacts on the warm rain initiation and quantify the potential seeding impact and uncertainties on UAE rainfall in a 10-year period.^[22]

Reflecting the Program's outstanding success and growing international status as a hub for rain enhancement research, the Third Cycle call for research proposals led to 201 pre-proposal submissions being received, representing 710 scientists and researchers affiliated to 316 institutions spread across 68 countries on five continents.^[23]

Notes and References

1. Web site: UAE mulls cloud seeding to enhance rainfall. March 29, 2007. Gulf News.
2. Web site: WAM - Emirates News Agency, Mansour bin Zayed stresses UAE's leadership in embracing scientific research as key pillar of country's innovation strategy. 2016-04-19. WAM. https://web.archive.org/web/20160423134713/http://www.wam.ae/en/news/emirates/1395294356245.html. 2016-04-23. dead.
3. Web site: Cloud Seeding, Studies and Assessment. National Center of Meteorology and Seismology. 2017-01-05. https://web.archive.org/web/20170105212909/http://www.ncms.ae/en/ncms-book-details.html?id=03. dead.
4. Web site: Cloud Seeding. National Center of Meteorology and Seismology official website. 2019-02-17. https://web.archive.org/web/20190217123820/http://www.ncms.ae/en/details.html?id=825&lid=1475. dead.
5. Web site: Scientists are making it rain in Abu Dhabi. 30 March 2016. CNN.
6. Web site: Let it rain in UAE: $5m to stimulate rainfall. February 17, 2015. Emirates 24/7.
7. Web site: UAE Research Programme for Rain Enhancement Science committee meet to select 2015 cycle winners. 16 November 2015. uae interact. https://web.archive.org/web/20160214065003/http://www.uaeinteract.com/docs/UAE_Research_Programme_for_Rain_Enhancement_Science_committee_meet_to_select_2015_cycle_winners/72346.htm. 2016-02-14. dead.
8. Web site: UAE rain enhancement programme assesses pre-proposals. 17 May 2015. Gulf News.
9. Web site: Academic trio with 'heads in the clouds' win $5m UAE rain enhancement research grant. 19 January 2016. The National.
10. Web site: Hundreds of scientists apply for UAE research programme to increase rainfall. 12 May 2015. The National.
11. Web site: UAE research programme for rain enhancement science. 4 May 2016. World Meteorological Organization.
12. Web site: UAE research programme for rain enhancement science. https://web.archive.org/web/20231218173616/https://public-old.wmo.int/en/media/news/uae-research-programme-rain-enhancement-science. dead. December 18, 2023. 4 May 2016. World Meteorological Organization.
13. Web site: UAE Research Program For Rain Enhancement Science Shortlists Promising Research Projects From Around The World In Second Cycle. 23 May 2016. Middle East Events.
14. Web site: Research Groups from USA, Finland and UK Announced as Recipients of UAE Rain Enhancement Program's 5 Million Dollar Grant. https://web.archive.org/web/20231218174224/https://public-old.wmo.int/en/media/news-from-members/research-groups-from-usa-finland-and-uk-announced-recipients-of-uae-rain. dead. December 18, 2023. 23 January 2017. World Meteorological Organization.
15. Web site: Research Groups From USA, Finland and UK Announced as Recipients of UAE Rain Enhancement Program's 5 Million Dollar Grant. Jan 18, 2017. Telegraphindia.
16. Web site: Abu dhabi sustainability week. Abu dhabi sustainability week.
17. Web site: Ali M. Abshaev. linkedin.
18. Web site: antigrad.
19. Web site: Eric W. Frew. Research and Engineering Center for Unmanned Vehicles. 29 October 2014 .
20. Web site: Eric W. Frew Associate Professor, Aerospace Engineering Sciences Department. colorado.
21. Web site: Lulin Xue. The National Center for Atmospheric Research.
22. Web site: Research Groups from the USA, China and Russia Announced as Awardees of UAEREP's US$5 Million Grant in its Third Cycle. UAE Research Program for Rain Enhancement Science.
23. Web site: The UAE has carried out 6 cloud-seeding missions. Gulf news. 9 January 2018 .