Application for Science Collaboration Symposium
Attending Countries: UK and Gulf Countries
Theme: Waste Water - Treatment and Reuse
Application Deadline: 19th January 2018
Location: Kuwait
BACKGROUND
Water scarcity in the Gulf remains an ongoing challenge and due to rapid growth in population levels, the challenges that these countries face are ever increasing. With low levels of annual rainfall, desalination has remained the primary source of potable water, but given the high financial and environmental costs associated with this process, water treatment and reuse must be viewed as a priority to help support the region’s needs.
Waste water is a by-product in a variety of sectors. The quality of the treated water and whether it can be reused is a fundamental problem. As with the rest of the world, approximately 70% of fresh water in the region is presently used in agricultural production. Therefore, the ability to reuse water for irrigation and human consumption would vastly reduce reliance on desalination or the limited supplies of groundwater; however, traditional waste water treatment methods fail to reduce the total dissolved solids to an acceptable level for this purpose.
When looking into wastewater collection and reuse, we should also consider the long term health impacts that are associated with antimicrobial resistance (AMR) due to the risk of spreading antibiotic–resistant bacteria through wastewater systems. In order to improve the methods to treat waste water we must also assess the role that both advanced materials and membrane technology can play in this thematic area.
With this in mind, we are organising a symposium that will focus on supporting and addressing priority areas through research and development of treatment and reuse of waste water within the following sub-topics:
- Treatment and reuse of waste water
- Improved methods to treat wastewater (eg. advanced materials membrane technology, other emerging technologies)
- Energy conversion in wastewater treatment plants
- Elimination of pollutants and hazardous substances (heavy metals, antibiotic residues and antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and other contaminants)
- Management of solid waste and other by-products
- Grey water and small scale treatment
The Symposium will be held at the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences (KFAS), from 5th to 6th March, 2018. It will be attended by scientists from Universities, other research institutions, start-up companies and established industry from the Gulf countries and the UK, as well as government entities. It will invite open discussions and potential investment to encourage the creation of UK-Gulf collaboration to access the deep pool of information & technology sharing, which will in turn lead to benefits for both the Gulf and the UK and open the door for commercial opportunities. We are, therefore, asking researchers to present their stimulating work and ideas related to Waste Water Treatment and Reuse.
This Symposium will be funded and delivered as part of the UK Government’s Gulf Science Innovation Knowledge Economy Programme. It will include a research call via the Institutional Links in the spring of 2018 and ‘Water’ will be one of the topics. This research call, the second in as many years, includes a UK Government contribution of £2.4 million. This event is organised in collaboration by the UK Science & Innovation Network (SIN), the British Embassy in Kuwait, the UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and the British Council, and is to be hosted by the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Science (KFAS).
The following expenses will be covered for UK and Gulf researchers from Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE selected to attend:
- Return economy flight to/from Kuwait International Airport.
- Return airport transfers - Kuwait International Airport/Hotel/Kuwait International Airport.
- 3 night accommodation in a single room (bed and breakfast, check-in on 4March and check-out on 7 March).
- All lunches and coffees during the two days of the symposium, as well as an event dinner on the first evening.
- Ground Transportation in Kuwait - Hotel/Venue/Hotel.
Please note that those attending from industry/SMEs must be self-funded.
APPLICATION DEADLINE
The deadline for receiving applications is 19 January 2018
Completed applications should be sent to Fakheema.Badri@kw.britishcouncil.org