Sultan Qaboos Award to focus on 3 fields

The Sultan Qaboos Award for Culture, Arts and Literature is a tribute to intellectuals, artists and writers for their civilisational contributions in renewing thought and elevating human sentiment. It emphasises Omani contribution, past, present and future, in enriching human civilisation with material, intellectual and knowledge achievements and this year the award is allocated to Omani literati only.

Speaking at a press conference, Habib bin Mohammed al Riyami, Chairman of the Sultan Qaboos Higher Centre for Culture and Science, said that this year the competition will be held in three fields - culture, arts and literature. The award in each field will focus on a single theme. The theme of Omani environmental studies was selected for the cultural category.

Mohammed bin Ali al Balushi, Member of the Award's Board, said: "This programme will accept studies published in fields related to Omani environment, whether marine, atmospheric or overland. We are now talking about scientific research. Nominations in this field are limited to individuals and the submitted research must be written in Arabic and published within the past four years."

Al Balushi added, "We seek in Omani studies the potential positive impact on environmental sustainability in the Sultanate of Oman, especially concerning policies, environmental conservation and sustainable environmental practices for natural resources."

Explaining the choice of this theme for this year, Al Balushi said, "We cannot talk about human development without discussing the stage on which humans exist, which is the environment. Therefore, this relationship between humans and nature is an eternal relationship, in which humans have exhibited various degrees of environmental adaptation, sometimes succeeding and other times failing. However, this accumulated knowledge encapsulated by the human mind over thousands of years on this blessed land must now be read differently."

Al Balushi continued proudly, "The government attaches great importance to preserving the Omani environment. If we follow the speeches of His Majesty Sultan Haitham bin Tarik since he assumed power, there has been continuous attention to this field. There is a talk about zero neutrality and seeking ways to ensure the actual preservation of the Omani environment and making the Omani environment an integral part of the development narrative on this land." He added, "Therefore, the award was established to encourage studies and creativity in research aimed at preserving the environment in Oman."

Al Balushi emphasised, "When we talk about geology in Oman, we are talking about a country with astonishing environmental diversity, which is rarely found in other countries. It possesses rocks that were once at the bottom of the ocean 90 years ago and are now exposed in Oman's land, which can be visited and seen. Today, we speak of environmental voids, vast deserts, towering mountains, seas and communities that have adapted to certain environments in Oman."

In the arts category, radio programmes were chosen as the field of competition, with participation restricted to institutions rather than individuals, considering that radio production is typically a collective effort involving a large number of creative participants.

Regarding this programme, Al Balushi said, "Nomination will be limited to audio works only, not audiovisual works, unless fundamentally auditory. There are many audio programmes today that have excerpts recorded for promotional purposes and to convey their messages to the public, which is acceptable. However, works that broadcast their entire episodes on social media platforms will be rejected."

As for the literature category, classical Arabic poetry was designated as the field of competition.

Al Balushi added, "Participation in this programme is limited to individuals only, who can submit one poetry collection. This collection must have been previously published and should not have been published for more than four years. The research will be for poetry collections characterised by poetic precision, creativity, lofty expression, linguistic integrity, quality and other poetic criteria that contribute to the excellence of the submitted poetry collection."