Former Dean Rabi Mohtar's ONE-NEXUS proposal wins one of two PRIMA Prize for Water Energy Food and Ecosystem (WEFE) Nexus. This is a recognition of a journey of contributions to research in WEFE Nexus starting from Qatar, where a WEF Nexus Tool 2.0 was developed to address the national food self-sufficiency policy, to a 3-year inter-disciplinary investigation into resource challenges facing San Antonio, Texas, through the Water-Energy-Food Nexus Initiative (WEFNI) at Texas A&M University, and to Lebanon and in partnerships with FAO where a WEF Nexus framework and tool were developed to access tradeoffs in water and energy in agriculture and interlinkages with social, political, and economic aspect. Multiple iterations of the WEF Nexus Tool 2.0 were adapted and scaled to address regional challenges as demonstrated from studies in Texas, Morocco, Turkey, and Lebanon.
This tool was included in the UNDG 'SDG Acceleration Tool Kit'. Lessons learned and transferable outcomes, disseminated in a STOTEN special issue, informed other studies and initiatives in other regions. The prize was delivered by Mr. John Bell, Director DG Research and Innovation of the European Commission at the WEFE Nexus Science advances. The conference was co-organized by the European Commission, Union for the Mediterranean, PRIMA, and the Cyprus Institute.
The conference was hosted by Cyprus on 27-29th September, 2021. Special thanks to the WEF Nexus research team from Texas A&M and AUB for making this recognition possible.
