23 May $120,000 GRANT AWARDS TO BOOST WATER RESEARCH IN PALESTINE AND JORDAN
MEDRC is pleased to announce the latest recipients of the organization’s Innovation Initiative grant awards.
The awards help to stimulate innovation by supporting impactful projects in the water sector of Palestine and Jordan with small research grants or seed funding to help develop big ideas. This is the second batch of awards granted by MEDRC and brings the total number of water research projects funded to date under the initiative, to seventeen. Facilitated through funding provided by the government of the Netherlands, the Innovation Initiative provides funding ranging from $3,000 to $5,000 USD per project and will have awarded a total of $120,000 USD by the end of this year.
The Innovation Initiative award funds are specifically for special projects of Palestinian and Jordanian resident-nationals, working on issues directly affecting the water security of Palestine and Jordan. These projects look to help extend the impact of the research conducted by MEDRC Master’s Research Fellows, by helping to move their work from the laboratory into the field where theories can be tested and practical solutions to water problems can be found.
From the organization’s headquarters in Al Hail, Muscat, MEDRC implement a university capacity building program that is a long term, demand driven program of activities designed to maximize the capacity of in country water researchers in Palestine and Jordan. Delivered in collaboration and in support of local partners the program contributes to the sustainable development of the Palestinian and Jordanian water sectors. It includes awards for graduate student fellowships, targeted research projects, and strategic equipment funding.
MEDRC will select its next batch of I2 awards from July 2019. Please visit www.medrc.org/developmentcooperation for more information and to submit an application.
The Innovation Award recipients are announced as follows:
1. Amna Al-Shabaki, Palestine
‘Optimal Utilization of Reject Brine Water from Desalination Process for Zero Waste to Produce both Vital Products for Water Desalination Processes and Hydroelectricity source under Gaza Siege’
2. Ashraf Mustapha, Palestine
‘The Interrelation between Gaza Aquifer and the Mediterranean Sea in terms of Submarine Groundwater Discharge’.
3. Jehad Al Dasht, Palestine
‘Quantification of Recharge and Runoff from Rainfall Using Soil Moisture Balance and Curve Number Methods – North of Gaza Strip, Palestine’.
4. Bayan Khalaf, Palestine
‘Removal of Difenoconazole from Wastewater Using New Synthesized Nanomembranes’.
5. Mariam Al Reefi, Palestine
‘Use of Brine Water from Desalination Plants in Sewage Dilution and in Reducing Fecal Pathogens’.
6. Nidal Hussein, Jordan
‘Sustainable Atmospheric Water Harvesting Portable Device for Remote-Arid Area’.
7. Tamer Eshtawi, Palestine
‘Modeling Recharge Rates of Stormwater/Reclaimed Wastewater Ponds in the Vadose Zone: Gaza Strip Case Study’.
8. Kamal Sheikh El-Eid, Gaza, Palestine ‘The Impact of Wastewater Reuse in Agriculture on Soil Properties and Production of Squash and Cantaloupe Crops at NGEST-WWTP’.
9. Shehdeh Jodeh, Palestine
‘Synthesis of Magnetically and Magnetic Nanoparticles Decorated with 2-Aminopyridine Functionalized Graphene Oxide for the Absorption of Malathion from Aqueous Solution’.