About the Center
The Center of Excellence for Water is a USAID-funded project awarded to The American University in Cairo in October 2019 until February 2024. To create the Alexandria Water Resilience Center of Excellence for Water (AWR-COE) at Alexandria University. The project activities are implemented in partnership with both Egyptian Ministries and Governorates, along with multiple universities (The American University in Cairo, Temple University, Utah State University, the University of California at Santa Cruz and Washington State University), Egyptian Universities (Ain Shams University, Alexandria University, Aswan University, Beni Suef University and Zagazig University), Egyptian Research Centers, and Egyptian and U.S. foundations and private sector companies.
Project Objectives
- Establish an Alexandria Water Resilience Center of Excellence for Water (AWR-COE) with a governance structure that creates collaboration and accountability among partners and stakeholders, supports linkages between supply and demand for water research, policy engagement, and skilled graduates, and generates revenue to remain financially stable for multiple decades.
- Improve the relevance and quality of the water curricula and effective/innovative teaching methods for undergraduates, graduates, and professionals in water-related fields.
- Elevate Egypt’s water-related research capacity and ability to create policy-relevant, innovative, and market-driven research products to strengthen the resilience of the community.
- Provide scholarships, small grants, training, and exchanges to equip the faculty and students with the knowledge, skills, and behaviors needed to master their jobs while strengthening the relationship between U.S. and Egyptian universities.
- Create a sustainable model yielding from a global network of public and private sectors, which will form alliances with stakeholders by instilling persistence, open dialogue, and disseminating project results to raise public awareness and engagement. These objectives will be achieved while focusing on the broad goal of increasing access for women, persons with disabilities, and talented yet economically disadvantaged students.
The project activities are implemented in partnership with both Egyptian Ministries and Governorates, along with multiple universities.