Call for proposals for desalination research

The Middle East Desalination Research Centre has published a call for proposals for ten research projects in the field of desalination research. The Centre is funded by the EU, Japan, Israel, the USA, South Korea and Oman, and is located in Muscat, in the Sultanate of Oman. I...

The Middle East Desalination Research Centre has published a call for proposals for ten research projects in the field of desalination research.

The Centre is funded by the EU, Japan, Israel, the USA, South Korea and Oman, and is located in Muscat, in the Sultanate of Oman. It was conceived out of the Middle East Peace Process as an international organization dedicated to basic, applied and sponsored research in the area of desalination technology. Its objective is to develop desalination technologies in order to solve the problems of water shortage in the Middle East and North Africa.

The ten projects for which proposals are currently being sought are as follows:

- 97-A-001: Novel material selection to improve corrosion resistance (budget $80,000);
- 97-A-002: Automation and operation optimization to reduce water costs (budget $75,000);
- 97-A-003: Economic and technical evaluation of replacement or refurbishment options of ageing MSF plants in the region (budget $100,000);
- 97-A-004: Membrane fouling and its prevention (may consist of smaller projects) (budget $400,000);
- 97-A-005: Innovative concepts (five studies) (budget $200,000 total);
- 97-A-006: Matching renewable energy with small desalination plants ($75,000);
- 97-A-007: Improvement in concentrate disposal technology (budget $100,000);
- 97-A-008: Hybrid desalination systems - effective integration of membrane/thermal desalination and power technology (budget $140,000);
- 97-A-009: Investigation of small, home-use RO units (budget $70,000);
- 97-A-010: Critical assessment of the state of the art (may consist of smaller projects) (budget $500,000 total).

Full specifications for each project and the application procedure may be found in the call documents. Each project must involve at least one partner from the Middle East/North Africa region. The Centre will fund up to 50% of the costs of each project.
For further information, please contact:

Middle East Desalination Research Centre
PO Box 21
Al Khuwair
133
Sultanate of Oman
Tel. [phone]; Fax [phone]

Full information on the call may be found on the Web, at:

http://www.medrc.org.om/