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Culture, Community and the Arts

British companies and organisations have been strong supporters of the work of the Emirates Foundation established in 2005 to support important long-term initiatives across the UAE in the areas of education, society and culture, research and development, social development, and the environment.

Over the years UK donors and partners of the Emirates foundation have included BP, Shell, the British Council, Carillion, International Power, Rolls Royce and the British Embassy.

The British Council's projects include the Cultural Excellence Fellowship in partnership with Abu Dhabi Music and Arts Foundation (ADMAF) which aims to bring together the best emerging talent of the Emirati cultural and creative industries, with established cultural leaders from the UK, the UAE and beyond to make a contribution to the ever-evolving UAE cultural sector. Today ADMAF has a reach of 40,000 across the UAE with ground-breaking initiatives. 

The Emirates Foundation and the UK's Booker Prize Foundation launched the International Prize for Arabic Fiction in April 2007. The prize, specifically for prose literature, aims to reward excellence in contemporary Arabic creative writing, to encourage wider readership of quality Arabic literature in the region and internationally, and to encourage translation and publication of Arabic language literature into other major languages.

Furthermore, in June 2009, the Sheikh Zayed Book Award announced a strategic partnership with the Middle East Centre at the University of Oxford. The Sheikh Zayed Book Award, established under the patronage of the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage, is presented every year to outstanding Arab writers, intellectuals, publishers as well as young talent whose writings and translations of humanities have scholarly and objectively enriched Arab cultural, literary and social life.

Dubai's Culture and Arts Authority partnered with National Portrait Gallery in London, with the support of the British Council to present 'Photographs in Dialogue' at Etihad Museum. The exhibition ran from the 9th-25th September featuring key moments in history that chronicle the diplomatic relations between the UK and the UAE in the 1960s, leading up to the UAE's union in 1971. 

A number of other UK universities have a presence in the UAE. For example, Bolton University and Stirling University have campuses in Ras Al-Khaimah. Herriot-Watt University, Strathclyde University, London Business School, British University, Cass Business School, and Middlesex University have outlets in Dubai.

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