JEDDAH: The King Abdul Aziz University (KAU) on Monday announced the winners of a research initiative on the coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Forty-two research proposals have been selected out of the total 230. The selection committees focused on proposals that provided creative solutions and supported community participation in areas such as medical, social, economic, infrastructure, technology, and environment. The KAU undersecretary for graduate studies and scientific research, Dr. Yousef bin Abdul Aziz Al-Turki, said that the initiative was launched last month to encourage and motivate researchers to conduct studies to deal with this pandemic.  He said the researchers were encouraged to analyze the available data, review theses, publications and scientific articles on the pandemic and suggest fast and effective methods to diagnose the disease.