 The National Avian Research Centre, NARC, is located on the outskirts of Sweihan, just over 100 km from Abu Dhabi. Now part of Abu Dhabi's Environmental Research and Wildlife Development Agency, ERWDA, the centre was established through Ruling Decree in 1989, with the purpose-built Sweihan offices themselves opening in autumn 1993. The centre is located in an area inviting studies of desert ecology on its immediate doorstep.
 Research is conducted into many aspects of wildlife ecology and physiology, with high-tech methods employed. The satellite-tracking of a wintering houbara bustard (Chlamydotis undulata macqueenii) from Abu Dhabi to China and back again the following autumn, a round-trip journey of over ten thousand kilometres, was one of the more notable and surprising findings to date. The applied side of ERWDA's work using data at all of its centres will ultimately be used, amongst other things, to establish a network of protected areas throughout Abu Dhabi emirate, to ensure sustainable landuse management techniques are introduced and, equally importantly, to collaborate in international conservation initiatives.
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