Center of Excellence
About the Center of Excellence
The Center of Excellence for Sustainable Food Security is dedicated to advancing technology-based solutions that enhance sustainable food production, particularly in arid environments. Our primary goal is to translate research outcomes into practical applications that reduce the environmental impact of food systems.
Aligned with Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 and the Kingdom's research, development and innovation priorities, the Center is focused on addressing the urgent challenges of sustainable food security, ensuring our efforts contribute significantly to national objectives.
By facilitating the testing of research discoveries in industry-relevant environments and supporting prototype development, the Center fosters strong collaborations between academia, industry and government. These interdisciplinary partnerships are essential for driving progress in sustainable food security, both within Saudi Arabia and globally.
The Center’s work not only aims to bolster food security in the Kingdom but also seeks to create scalable solutions that can be adapted to other regions facing similar challenges, thereby contributing to broader economic and societal development.
Welcome Message from the Chair
“The food sector has one of the highest environmental footprints, and for Saudi Arabia, food security is particularly challenging due to low precipitation, high temperatures and reliance on imported food. Local agriculture consumes over 70% of the country's freshwater, mostly from non-replenishable deep groundwater, making it unsustainable.
“Our Center of Excellence for Sustainable Food Security aims to address these challenges by harnessing expertise in digital technologies, engineering, material science, plant science and biotechnologies to develop sustainable food production solutions for the Kingdom and other marginal environments globally. We invite you to join us in this critical goal to secure a more sustainable food future.”
Executive Committee and Leadership
Research and Translation Areas
The Center focuses on developing and delivering technology-based solutions for sustainable food production in arid environments, minimizing environmental impacts. We aim to translate and implement innovative research outcomes for the benefit of Saudi Arabia, the Middle East region and beyond. Our goal is to ensure that technologies from across KAUST are effectively applied to support the Kingdom's goals.
Training and Outreach
The training and outreach activities within the Center of Excellence for Sustainable Food Security are designed to create a robust framework for building the necessary human capital to support sustainable food systems in arid environments. This includes a comprehensive training and outreach initiative aimed at students from primary school level to the postdoctoral level, ensuring that the next generation of scientists and industry leaders are well-equipped to tackle the challenges of sustainable agriculture.
The Sustainable Food Security Edible Education Program is a key program that focuses on grade 12 education and is designed to integrate sustainable agricultural practices, healthy food habits and the study of plant science into the curricula. The long-term aim of the program is to drive a paradigm shift around the food system in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which engages all grade 12 students and incorporates the full lifecycle of food from planting, harvesting, cooking and composting.
Additionally, the center supports Ph.D. students and offers undergraduate internships aligned with its core themes.
Partners and Supporters
A primary aim of our Center is to increase the delivery of our technologies and innovations to the Kingdom. To facilitate this, one major activity of the Center is to increase interactions between KAUST and in-Kingdom stakeholders, in particular government agencies, the giga-projects and industry. At the time of application, we received over 30 letters of support. Building on this, we are now establishing an Industry Liaison Group, and we look forward to posting details on this soon.
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