The International Desalination Assn. (IDA) announced that applications are now being accepted for the 2014-15 Fellowship Award Program, and that the deadline has been extended to Oct. 10, 2014.
The 2014-15 Fellowship Award Program will be hosted in Oman during 2015 by the Public Authority for Electricity and Water (PAEW), located in Ruwi, Muscat. One person will be selected to relocate to Oman to participate in a training project program for a mutually agreed upon time period. The commencement date of the attachment is dependent upon the specific project on which the IDA Fellow will work. A specific timetable will be provided once the details of the project have been confirmed. Announcement of IDA Fellow will be made by the end of October.
Responsible for activating government policy in securing the electricity supply and for providing and distributing adequate electrical power supply and potable water to various consumers (residential, industrial and commercial), PAEW performs studies and explores and evaluates multiple techniques for providing fresh water and power production.
Launched in 2008, the fellowship program consists of both a monetary award of up to $10,000 and an attachment with a host agency to work on a specific project. To be eligible for the fellowship award, individual applicants must be IDA members, and must possess eight to 10 years of working experience in the field of desalination and/or water reuse.
The objective of the program is to facilitate the advancement of global expertise in desalination and water reuse by fostering more interactions and sharing of non-confidential knowledge and non-patented technologies and processes in the desalination and water reuse industry. The program is designed to benefit not only the Fellow and host agency, but also the industry at large.
“This program plays an important role in promoting education and fostering information exchange among industry professionals – two essential elements in the fulfillment of IDA’s mission of supporting development of and promoting the use of desalination and desalination technology globally,” said Patricia A. Burke, IDA’s Secretary General.
“The IDA Fellow acquires new in-depth knowledge. The host agency benefits from the IDA Fellow’s experience, knowledge and exposure to best practices, which are shared with the support of the Fellow’s own organization. The IDA Fellow becomes a conduit for knowledge transfer, by sharing his or her learning with their own organization, as well as with other fellow professionals through IDA’s publications or presentations at major IDA events,” Burke said.
Each host agency for the IDA Fellowship Program is a public utility or research organization known for its leadership in desalination and desalination technologies. In addition to PAEW, IDA has partnered with the following as host agencies: PUB, Singapore’s national water agency; Saline Water Conversion Corp. in Saudi Arabia; Water Corp. and Murdoch University in Western Australia; the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation in the U.S.; and the Ministry of Electricity & Water in Kuwait.
Source: International Desalination Assn.