The institute will be backed by Israeli water from air company Watergen and the UAE's Baynunah and work closely with Tel Aviv University.

An Israeli delegation was in the UAE this week, accompanied by a US delegation led by Jared Kushner, to advance cooperation agreements.

Israeli and US delegations will take off Monday abroad the first commercial flight direct to Abu Dhabi for talks on Israel-UAE normalization.

The race began Sunday and will unfold over the next week, crossing all seven of the United Arab Emirates.