The WRC is partnering with the American University in Cairo, five Egyptian universities, four other U.S.-based universities, and industry partners to create the Alexandria Water Resilience Center of Excellence (AWR-COE). The initiative is funded by a $30 million grant from the USAID, as part of a program to initiate Centers of Excellence in Water, Energy, and Agriculture in Egypt.
The AWR-COE will be a state of the art, applied research and education center located at Alexandria University in Alexandria, Egypt, in collaboration with Egyptian partners Ain Shams University, Aswan University, Beni Suef University, and Zagazig University. The American University in Cairo and the WRC at WSU are joined by U.S.-based University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC); Utah State University (USU), and Temple University (TU).
The AWR-COE will catalyze long-term improvement in Egyptian water resource management by improving its applied research and education enterprise to support effective water management and train the next generation of graduates and entrepreneurs in water sciences and management.
The USAID funded project will support the partner universities as they a develop robust governance system for the Center, identify priority research needs, fund key research projects, expand teaching curricula, and promote international exchange with US universities, and develop a sustainable funding and impact model for the AWR-COE.
WRC is leading the effort to develop the governance structure for the AWR-COE, which will be necessary to support initial development of the Center , as well as the sustainability of the center beyond the five-year USAID project funding period.
The WRC’s partnership in this USAID project will create research funding opportunities for WSU faculty and students to collaborate with faculty and students at Egyptian Partner Universities on critical water research needs for Egypt, as well as faculty and student exchange between WSU and Egyptian Partner Universities.
The project commenced early 2019 and is expected to be completed by 2023. The USAID launched the COE program in March, 2019 at an event in Cairo. The AWR-COE team held a kickoff meeting at the American University in Cairo to initiate the effort.