His Royal Highness Prince Khalid bin Sultan bin Abdulaziz, Chairman of the Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water officiated the Prize Council’s first meeting to discuss the seventh award, which is currently receiving nominations. The meeting was held on 27 October 2015 at the Azizia Palace in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

The meeting was attended by PSIPW’s deputy chairman, His Royal Highness Prince Badr bin Sultan Bin Abdulaziz, PSIPW’s General Secretary Dr. Abdul Malik bin Abdulrahman Al Alsheikh, and the other members of the Prize Council.

At the forefront of the topics discussed was the status of nominations for the seventh award, which is currently underway. Note was taken that the volume and diversity of nominations received so far is already higher than in previous awards, and it is expected that by the 31 December 2015 deadline for nominations, there will be an unprecedented large number of nominations.

The Council also discussed the upcoming rigorous three-tiered referee process which will begin in January 2016 and approved the list of international referees who would be asked to serve on the Creativity Prize Committee and on the three referee committees for each of the Specialized Prizes.

Afterwards, the Council reviewed PSIPW’s activities since the beginning of the seventh award cycle, including its sponsorship and participation in a number of international scientific conferences. Among the most important of these were: the IWA World Congress and Exhibition in Lisbon Portugal in September 2014; the Third Arab Water Forum in Cairo in December; the Seventh World Water Forum in Daegu Korea in April 2015; the SETAC Europe 25th Annual meeting in Barcelona in May, where there was a special event honouring PSIPW’s three Spanish prizewinners; the IWRA XVth World Congress in Edinburgh in May; the IAHR World Congress in The Hague in June; and the 42nd IAH Congress in Rome in September.

The Council concluded by discussing strategies for the future so that PSIPW can maintain the excellent standards that it has achieved and excel in awarding and encouraging scientists, researchers and inventors around the world for pioneering work that addresses the problem of water scarcity in creative and effective ways.