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Ten years of awarding innovation
Abdulmalek A. Al Alshaikh, General Secretary, Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water
On 21 October 2002, His Royal Highness Prince Sultan
Bin Abdulaziz – who at the time was Saudi Arabia’s
Crown Prince, deputy prime minister, minister of
Defence and Aviation, and inspector general – announced that
nominations were open for a new scientific prize: the Prince
Sultan Bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water (PSIPW).
Prince Sultan already had a long history of environmental activism
in Saudi Arabia. In 1986, he established the National Commission
for Wildlife Conservation and Development to protect the nation’s
indigenous wildlife. In 1990, he became chairman of the Saudi
Ministerial Committee for the Environment, which sets forth the
national strategy for environmental protection.
PSIPW is Prince Sultan’s most far-reaching and global legacy.
From the start, he envisioned it as a prize that would award scien-
tific innovation in water-related fields, and recognise scientists,
inventors and organizations around the world for their efforts in
combating the ever-growing problem of water scarcity. Now, ten
years on, PSIPW is realizing its founder’s dream of awarding the
most relevant and innovative scientific breakthroughs that provide
real solutions to fulfil humanity’s need for potable water.
The Prize Council is headed by the founder’s son His Royal
Highness Prince Khalid Bin Sultan Bin Abdulaziz, who shares his
father’s enthusiasm for environmental activism. After witnessing first-
hand how human activity is rapidly destroying the world’s coral reefs,
he established the Khaled Bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation in the
2000 to advance his vision of ‘Science Without Borders’. Under its
auspices, his yacht fleet, led by Golden Odyssey and the support vessel
Golden Shadow, is frequently employed in major scientific research
expeditions, such as the Global Reef Expedition.
The Prize Council is comprised of leading scholars from
around the world. Although PSIPW is headquartered in Riyadh,
Saudi Arabia, at King Saud University’s Prince Sultan Institute
for Environmental, Water and Desert Research, true to its inter-
national focus the Prize Council holds its meetings in different
cities around the world in conjunction with various water events.
PSIPW is open to nominations from researchers and research
organizations working in all water-related areas. To ensure it
attracts the best, most relevant nominations from around the
world, PSIPW offers a suite of five bi-annual prizes that cover the
entire water research landscape:
• The Creativity Prize is awarded to an innovator or pioneer for
a breakthrough in any water-related field. It might be a body of
research, an invention, or a new patented technology
• The Surface Water Prize covers every aspect of the study and
development of surface water resources
• The Groundwater Prize focuses on all aspects of the study and
development of groundwater resources
• The Alternative Water Resources Prize awards
innovative work in desalination, wastewater
treatment and other non-traditional sources of water
• The Water Management and Protection Prize
covers the use, management and protection of
water resources.
US$266,000 is allocated for the Creativity Prize, while
US$133,000 is allocated for each of the four special-
ized water prizes. Nominations are currently being
accepted for the 6th Award, 2014 and are open until 31
December 2013. All nominations can be made online
at
Nominations are evaluated by an international
panel of distinguished scientists, which serve on
various specialized committees for each prize, start-
ing with the preliminary evaluation committee,
followed by the referee committee and ending with
the final selection committee.
Over the years, PSIPW has had the honour of award-
ing its various prizes to leading scholars in water
research, such as Dr Jery R. Stedinger, Dr Herman
I nternational Cooperation on W ater Sciences and Research
PSIPW was founded by HRH Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz
(1930-2011) in 2002
Image: PSIPW