Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water


The Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water is a Saudi Arabian scientific prize, established on 21 October 2002 by Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud. The Prize has its headquarters at the Prince Sultan Research Center for Environment, Water and Desert at King Saud University.
It is a bi-annual international scientific award that accepts nominations from all over the world. For its third round the Prize received 198 nominations from 53 countries, with the Creativity Prize, worth more than a quarter of a million dollars, receiving 73 of those nominations.

Prizes Awarded

PSIPW offers five distinct prizes. One million Saudi Riyals is allocated for the Creativity Prize, while half a million Saudi Riyals is allocated for each of the other four Specialized Prizes. The Prize is accompanied by a gold medallion, a trophy and a certificate.
The five prizes are as follows:

Specialized Prizes:
During the first two awards of the Prize and there were five specialized prizes, since "Water Resources Management" and "Water Resources Protection" were awarded separately. These two prizes were combined after the Second Award and the "Water Management and Protection Prize" was awarded for the first time with the Third Award. The Creativity Prize was inaugurated for the Third Award.

The Creativity Prize

The Creativity Prize is not restricted to specific topics. Instead, its criteria are defined by general guidelines. This allows the Creativity Prize to cover a broad range of interdisciplinary water-related subjects.
The Creativity Prize is awarded to work that the Prize Committee deems to be a "breakthrough" in any water-related field. The work might be an invention, a research paper, a new technology, or a development project. It can relate to any branch of any water-related discipline. It might contribute to increasing available water resources, or to alleviating scarcity, or to minimizing pollution. It might make a material contribution to water conservation or to effective water management. The work should provide a solution which is useful to society, contribute to development and social upliftment, be practical, environmentally friendly, and cost-effective.

Specialized Prizes

The topic for each of the four specialized prizes used to vary with each award. For example, in one round of the Prize, the Surface Water topic might be "Flood Control". In other rounds, the topic might be "Rainwater Harvesting", "Sedimentation Control", "Space Technology Applications" or some other topic related to surface water issues. The same applied to the other three specialized prizes. However, the topic for the third specialized branch – alternative water resources – will most frequently be related to desalination.
The topics for the award were as follows:
Starting with the 5th award, specific topics were no longer announced. All of the Specialized Prizes became open to all relevant topics.

Organization, nomination and selection

The Prize Council consists of the Prize Council Chairman who is presently HRH Prince Khalid Bin Sultan Bin Abdulaziz and the following council members:

  1. All nominations for the 4th Award of the Prize will be made online through an electronic application form that will be available on the PSIPW website. All required documentation and submitted works will be uploaded by way of the same form. No mail-in applications will be accepted.
  2. Nominations may be made for individuals and groups whose work conforms to the criteria of the Creativity Prize.
  3. An individual or group of individuals may be nominated for the prize. In the event that a group of individuals are being nominated, all group members must be named at the time of application and one member must be specified as their representative. Groups of people working on the same project may not be nominated separately. They must be nominated as a group with a single nomination form.
  4. A university, institution, or government agency is not eligible to be nominated for the Creativity Prize. The nominee must be an individual or group of individuals.
  5. Nominations for the Creativity Prize must be made by a university, institution, or government agency. Individuals may not nominate themselves or others for the Creativity Prize.
  6. The work or works being considered for the nomination must have been completed no more than five years prior to the nomination deadline for the current Prize.
  7. Published research papers, published books, and registered patents may be submitted for consideration. No more than five distinct works may be submitted. Multiple works should not be collected together and submitted as a single work.
  8. Works will be reviewed and judged in English. If the work being nominated was originally published in a language other than English, it must be submitted in the original language accompanied by a full translation or by a translation of the parts of the work that are to be considered for the Prize. If a partial English translation is provided for a work submitted in another language, then only that portion of the work which is translated will be considered for assessment.
  9. An individual or group nominated for the Creativity Prize may not be nominated in the same round for a Specialized Branch Prize.
  10. The work being nominated must not have previously been a recipient of any other international prize.
  11. Members of the Prize committees and their immediate relatives may not be nominated for the Prize.

    Conditions for nomination – specialized branch prizes

  12. All nominations for the 4th Award of the Prize will be made online through an electronic application form that will be available on the PSIPW website. All required documentation and submitted works will be uploaded by way of the same form. No mail-in applications will be accepted.
  13. Nominations may be made for individuals, groups, and organizations who have made a pioneering contribution in of the branches of the Prize.
  14. An individual, group of individuals, or organization may nominate themselves for the prize. In the event that a group of individuals are being nominated, all group members must be named at the time of application and one member must be specified as their representative. Groups of people working on the same project may not be nominated separately. They must be nominated as a group with a single nomination form.
  15. The work or works being considered for the nomination must have been completed no more than five years prior to the nomination deadline for the current Prize.
  16. Published research papers, published books, and registered patents may be submitted for consideration. No more than five distinct works may be submitted. Multiple works should not be collected together and submitted as a single work. All works submitted for consideration must be related to the particular specialized branch chosen for the nomination.
  17. Works will be reviewed and judged in English. If the work being nominated was originally published in a language other than English, it must be submitted in the original language accompanied by a full translation or by a translation of the parts of the work that are to be considered for the Prize. If a partial English translation is provided for a work submitted in another language, then only that portion of the work which is translated will be considered for assessment.
  18. An individual, group, or organization nominated for a particular branch of the Prize may not be nominated in the same round for another Specialized Branch Prize or for the Creativity Prize.
  19. The work being nominated must not have previously been a recipient of any other international prize.
  20. Members of the Prize committees and their immediate relatives may not be nominated for the Prize.

    Evaluation of nominated works

Works are evaluated to determine their scientific value and originality, how they contribute to the field, and their usefulness to society, especially with reference to development and to solving problems on an international level.
The nominated works are evaluated by an international panel of scientists who serve on various specialized committees on one or more of the following three levels:
The secretariat of the Prize typically announces the names of the winners in October, with the Prizes being awarded at a formal ceremony held in November in conjunction with an academic conference.
The ceremony for the First Award was held on Sunday, 5 December 2004 at King Saud University along with the 1st International Conference on Water Resources and Arid Environments. The ceremony for the Second Award took place on 26 November 2006 concurrently with the 2nd International Conference on Water Resources and Arid Environments.
The ceremony for the Third Award took place on Sunday, 16 November 2008 in conjunction with the 3rd International Conference on Water Resources and Arid Environments 2008 and 1st Arab Water Forum, which ran from 16 to 19 November. The ceremony was attended by Prince Willem-Alexander, Crown Prince of the Netherlands, Prince of Orange and Chairman of the Advisory Commission of United Nations Secretary General for Water and Sanitation Affairs.

Medals, trophies and certificates

The monetary award of the Prize is accompanied by a gold medallion, a trophy and a certificate.
The base of the trophy is engraved in both English and Arabic with the name of the Prize and the winner, while the top of the trophy is made of crystal in the pattern of the PSIPW logo - concentric, tear-shaped semicircles surrounding a central image of the Earth.

Prize winners

First Award (2002-2004)

The Prize Council announced the names of the winners on 31 October 2004 as follows:
The Prize Council announced the names of the winners on 31 October 2007 as follows:
The Prize Council announced the names of the winners as follows:
The Prize Council announced the names of the winners as follows:
The Prize Council announced the names of the winners as follows:
The Prize Council announced the names of the winners as follows:
The Prize Council announced the names of the winners as follows:
The Prize Council announced the names of the winners as follows:
The Prize is a nonprofit organization that, along with bestowing a biannual award, is involved in various water-related activities. These include the following:
  1. The Prize, in conjunction with the United Nations and UNESCO, is undertaking to establish online an extensive international portal for water research, which will provide information about experts and organizations working in the field.
  2. The General Secretariat of the Prize possesses an extensive library which includes, alongside books and journals in water-related fields, all of the research nominated to the Prize throughout its history. This research is made available for the benefit of specialist bodies engaged in research and applied water technologies in coordination with the original researchers.
  3. The Prize sponsors the Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz International Prize's Chair for Water Research located at the Prince Sultan Research Center for Environment, Water, and Desert. The Chair, in turn, supports research into rain and floodwater harvesting.
  4. In conjunction with King Saud University and the Saudi Ministry of Water and Electricity, the Prize organizes a bi-annual international conference that is held concurrently with the Prize's awards ceremony. The 3rd Conference hosted workshops and seminars on the ministerial level.
  5. The Prize, in conjunction with the United Nations, UNESCO, and the King Abdulaziz City for Science & Technology, participated in organizing the International Conference on the Use of Space Technology for Water Management held in Riyadh.
  6. The Prize is one of the intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations having permanent observer status on the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, and as such, the Prize is part of the delegation representing Saudi Arabia at the COPUOS meetings of held annually in Vienna.
  7. The Prize is a gold-level sponsor of a number of international conferences and exhibitions around the world, sponsoring at least 10 to 15 different conferences and exhibitions during each round of the Prize.
  8. The Prize is a member of the Arab Water Council's Board of Governors, and as such actively participates in all of the Council's meetings and conferences. It also provides support for some of the Arab Water Council's activities.