UAE Rain Enhancement Programme Offers $3 Million for Up to Five Cloud-Seeding Projects

The programme, run by the National Center of Meteorology, published a document setting out its target research areas and funding framework, according to the state news agency WAM. Projects can last one to three years. One-year projects can receive up to $500,000, two-year projects up to $1 million and three-year projects up to $1.5 million.

The new cycle asks applicants to show how their work will reach practical use. Each proposal must set out a path to a target level of operational readiness, and the programme said it wants research that moves technologies and models closer to deployment rather than staying in the laboratory. The UAE presents the programme as part of its effort to secure water supplies in an arid region.

The five areas are improved seeding materials; new systems for forming clouds and increasing rainfall; unmanned aircraft systems; limited climate interventions; and advanced models, software and data.

The drone track covers identifying suitable clouds in real time, delivering seeding material precisely to target locations and running coordinated operations with several autonomous aircraft. The modelling track covers improving operational models, developing methods that combine physical modelling with artificial intelligence, expanding the data that models can take in, and finding better ways to evaluate and verify the results of seeding. The materials track looks at the physical and chemical properties of seeding agents, how they are made and dispersed, and their environmental effects. The climate intervention track covers factors including changes to terrain and land cover, atmospheric moisture, aerosols and regional differences in solar radiation.

Abdulla Al Mandous, president of the World Meteorological Organization and head of the National Center of Meteorology, said the UAE places great importance on investing in scientific research, innovation and international cooperation to achieve water security. Ahmed Al Kamali, director of the programme and acting head of cloud seeding operations at the centre, said the cycle builds on the programme's earlier work and encourages multidisciplinary proposals and wider participation from the international research community.

Applications will be assessed in two stages. The criteria are scientific and technical merit, significance and innovation, methodology, the team's expertise, contribution to capacity building, and efficient use of the budget. The programme said it favours collaboration between universities, industry and government bodies, including teams from several countries, and stressed that proposals should involve researchers and institutions based in the UAE.

The programme has funded 17 research projects in its six previous cycles. The announcement did not give a deadline for submissions.