The Dubai Press Club hosted their fourth workshop – as part of the Scientific Journalist Program - at United Arab Emirates University (UAEU). The workshop was on ‘Water and Food Security’ and was attended by journalists specializing in Science and Technology from local and Arabic language newspapers in the UAE.

Professor Ahmed Murad, Dean of the College of Science at UAEU, explained that the, “program enhances UAEU’s vision of transferring knowledge and skills to the community via the media. It also promotes the university's mission to communicate with wider society through partnerships with the media.”

Professor Murad stated that water and food resources are vital in terms of national development and therefore it is important to understand the issues surrounding these priorities. Journalists who understand the issues affecting water and food security can spread this news to their readership. This session was aimed at helping journalists to understand these concepts so that they can better write scientific and fact-based articles.

Maitha Buhumaid, Acting Director of Dubai Press Club, said that running ‘The Scientific Journalist’ Program with the UAE Council of Scientists showed that the Dubai Press Club was keeping abreast of the UAE’s development and future aspirations. She stressed the need for such programs and talked about the launch of the Artificial Intelligence Strategy announced by H.H. Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid, the Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai. She added that organizing the workshop on water and food security helped to improve the reporting of scientific concepts in the news.

Alia Al Kaabi, from UAEU’s University Outreach Department, talked about the idea of scientific news and how to convey scientific concepts to the reader. “A journalist is a link between those who produce knowledge and those who use it,” she added.

Professor Mohsen Sherif, Director of the UAEU National Water Center and Professor Ahmed Hussain, Head of the Arid Land Agriculture Department in the College of Food and Agriculture spoke about UAEU’s scientific research on the UAE’s water resources and how that impacted on future water security in the UAE.