Bringing The Future To life In Abu Dhabi

Amid the deserts of Abu Dhabi, a new wave of entrepreneurs and innovators are sowing the seeds of a more sustainable future.

Image from: Wired

A cluster of shipping containers in a city centre is about the last place you’d expect to find salad growing. Yet for the past year, vertical farming startup Madar Farms has been using this site in Masdar City, Abu Dhabi, to grow leafy green vegetables using 95 per cent less water than traditional agriculture. 

Madar Farms is one of a number of agtech startups benefitting from a package of incentives from the Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO) aimed at spurring the development of innovative solutions for sustainable desert farming. The partnership is part of ADIO’s $545 million Innovation Programme dedicated to supporting companies in high-growth areas.

“Abu Dhabi is pressing ahead with our mission to ‘turn the desert green’,” explained H.E. Dr. Tariq Bin Hendi, Director General of ADIO, in November 2020. “We have created an environment where innovative ideas can flourish and the companies we partnered with earlier this year are already propelling the growth of Abu Dhabi’s 24,000 farms.”

The pandemic has made food supply a critical concern across the entire world, combined with the effects of population growth and climate change, which are stretching the capacity of less efficient traditional farming methods. Abu Dhabi’s pioneering efforts to drive agricultural innovation have been gathering pace and look set to produce cutting-edge solutions addressing food security challenges.

Beyond work supporting the application of novel agricultural technologies, Abu Dhabi is also investing in foundational research and development to tackle this growing problem. 

In December, the emirate’s recently created Advanced Technology Research Council [ATRC], responsible for defining Abu Dhabi’s R&D strategy and establishing the emirate and the wider UAE as a desired home for advanced technology talent, announced a four-year competition with a $15 million prize for food security research. Launched through ATRC’s project management arm, ASPIRE, in partnership with the XPRIZE Foundation, the award will support the development of environmentally-friendly protein alternatives with the aim to "feed the next billion".

Image from: Madar Farms

Global Challenges, Local Solutions

Food security is far from the only global challenge on the emirate’s R&D menu. In November 2020, the ATRC announced the launch of the Technology Innovation Institute (TII), created to support applied research on the key priorities of quantum research, autonomous robotics, cryptography, advanced materials, digital security, directed energy and secure systems.

“The technologies under development at TII are not randomly selected,” explains the centre’s secretary general Faisal Al Bannai. “This research will complement fields that are of national importance. Quantum technologies and cryptography are crucial for protecting critical infrastructure, for example, while directed energy research has use-cases in healthcare. But beyond this, the technologies and research of TII will have global impact.”

Future research directions will be developed by the ATRC’s ASPIRE pillar, in collaboration with stakeholders from across a diverse range of industry sectors.

“ASPIRE defines the problem, sets milestones, and monitors the progress of the projects,” Al Bannai says. “It will also make impactful decisions related to the selection of research partners and the allocation of funding, to ensure that their R&D priorities align with Abu Dhabi and the UAE's broader development goals.”

Image from: Agritecture

Nurturing Next-Generation Talent

To address these challenges, ATRC’s first initiative is a talent development programme, NexTech, which has begun the recruitment of 125 local researchers, who will work across 31 projects in collaboration with 23 world-leading research centres.

Alongside universities and research institutes from across the US, the UK, Europe and South America, these partners include Abu Dhabi’s own Khalifa University, and Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence, the world’s first graduate-level institute focused on artificial intelligence. 

“Our aim is to up skill the researchers by allowing them to work across various disciplines in collaboration with world-renowned experts,” Al Bannai says. 

Beyond academic collaborators, TII is also working with a number of industry partners, such as hyperloop technology company, Virgin Hyperloop. Such industry collaborations, Al Bannai points out, are essential to ensuring that TII research directly tackles relevant problems and has a smooth path to commercial impact in order to fuel job creation across the UAE.

“By engaging with top global talent, universities and research institutions and industry players, TII connects an intellectual community,” he says. “This reinforces Abu Dhabi and the UAE’s status as a global hub for innovation and contributes to the broader development of the knowledge-based economy.”

USA: Velázquez Bill Would Bring Green Rooftops to Public Schools

July 24, 2020

Washington, DC –If Rep. Nydia M. Velázquez (D-NY) has her way, schools may become fertile ground for learning about the environment and sustainability. The New York Representative has authored a bill allocating federal resources for the adoption of green roofs at public elementary and secondary schools, known as the Public School Green Rooftop Program. The bill has the potential to open up a world of environmental and educational benefits for students and the broader community. The legislation would be especially beneficial to urban areas where access to green space is commonly limited.

“There is no better place to begin teaching our children about conservation than our public schools,” said Velázquez. “However, their education does not need to be confined to the classroom.  These roofs allow students to directly engage with sustainable practices and see for themselves the impact that environmentally conscious initiatives can have on their hometowns and neighborhoods.  By exposing them to these ideas early on in their education, we forge a path to a cleaner, healthier community.”

Under this program, the Department of Energy will implement a grant program for the installation and maintenance of green roof systems. Green roofs are a sustainable, durable method of improving a building’s carbon footprint, as well as a place where exploration by teachers and students of pressing environmental and agricultural issues can take root. Children living in urban areas will have the chance to see these practices firsthand, an opportunity they are not often afforded. The roofs, according to the EPA, provide a notable advantage to urban communities, where greenery is often hard to come by.

This bill follows a legacy of success in other states.  According to estimates from the Missouri educational system, green roofs can save a single school up to $41,587 a year in electricity costs alone.  These roofs will cut district energy and maintenance costs substantially.  A regularly maintained green roof has a longevity of forty years, as opposed to a standard roof’s ten to fifteen.  Additionally, the bill grants maintenance funding for up to four years after the installation of every roof.

Teaching outdoors may also confer an additional benefit: open air schoolrooms may mitigate the spread of the novel coronavirus. In the 1900s, schools utilized an open-air classroom to prevent students from contracting tuberculosis. Today, this measure has seen support from elementary school teachers who fear that sending teachers and children back into school buildings may pose a danger.

“While we navigate this year’s public health crisis, we need to ensure that we take careful steps towards reopening, with safety as a priority,” asserted Velázquez. “Green rooftops can answer to the call for safer schooling: additional outdoor space provides an opportunity to increase social distancing and open air. This may be one of the ways we can continue to give children the education they need, safely.”

The bill has received resounding support, with endorsements from notable organizations such as National Resources Defense Council, UPROSE, The Nature Conservancy, New York City Audubon, Green Roofs for Healthy Cities, Green Roof Researcher Alliance, Williamsburg Greenpoint Parents for our Public Schools (WAGPOPS), The HOPE Program, Sustainable South Bronx, The New School Urban Systems Labs, Alive Structures, New York Sun Works, Riverkeeper, Red Hook Rise, Voces Ciudadanas de Sunset Park, Red Hook Rise, New York League of Conservation Voters, Resilient Red Hook, New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, NYC H20, the Gowanus Canal Conservancy, Brooklyn Grange, El Puente, Brooklyn Greenroof, Cypress Hills Local Development Corporation, St. Nicks Alliance, New York Environmental Law & Justice Project, Environmental Justice Initiative, National Lawyers Guild -  Environmental Justice Committee and Brooklyn Community Board 6.

“This critical legislation will give other public schools, especially those communities historically overburdened by ecological discrimination, the opportunity to reduce their building's environmental footprint significantly and enhance learning opportunities as our green roof has demonstrated at P.S. 41 in Manhattan,” said Vicki Sando, STEM Teacher and Green Roof Founder of P.S. 41 in New York City.

“We at NYC Audubon and the Green Roof Researchers Alliance are thrilled about this legislation and would like to thank Congresswoman Velázquez for her commitment to the natural world. The Public School Green Rooftop Program will result in the growth of critical habitat for wildlife, make the US more resilient in the face of climate change, and provide our youth the opportunity to experience conservation and environmental science first hand,” said Dustin Partridge of the Green Roof Researchers Alliance and Molly Adams of New York City Audubon.

“Passage of this bill will provide exceptional green roof benefits to children, their parents, and teachers at a time when access to safe, green space is very important to communities, and the need to redress the racial injustices is greater than ever,” said Steven W. Peck, GRP, Founder and President, Green Roofs for Healthy Cities.

“The HOPE Program, with extensive experience building and maintaining green roofs through our social enterprise, fully supports the Public School Green Rooftop program. This initiative will provide cleaner air for children in schools and the surrounding communities; contribute to ambitious local sustainability goals; and has the potential to provide living wage employment opportunities to the communities most impacted by the current crisis. It's a win, win, win,” said Jennifer Mitchell, Executive Director of the HOPE Program. 

“Voces Ciudadanas is grateful for Congresswoman Velázquez’s leadership in introducing ‘the Public School Green Rooftop Program’ bill and hopes that Congress passes this bill that prioritizes long-term green investments into our communities that are beneficial on so many fronts including encouraging multidisciplinary learning, facilitating meaningful parent involvement, providing opportunities for physical activity, and promoting healthy eating,” said Victoria Becerra-Quiroz of Voces Ciudadanas de Sunset Park.

The bill, H.R. 7693, has been referred to the House Committee on Education and Labor.

A pdf version of the bill can be found here.

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