Jeddah, April 27, 2020, SPA -- King Abdulaziz University has announced the winning of 42 research proposals out of a total of 230 proposals submitted during the last period as a part of the University's Rector's initiative for outstanding research on the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19). The research committees focused on proposals that provide creative solutions and support community participation in four areas, including medical, social, economic, infrastructure, technology, and environmental fields. The Undersecretary for Graduate Studies and Scientific Research Dr. Yousef bin Abdulaziz Al-Turki said that the initiative was launched last month to encourage and motivate researchers to conduct distinguished studies to deal with this pandemic, provide a view to scientific prediction of what can happen in the short and long term, analyze the available data, review theses, publications and scientific articles of the pandemic, develop fast and effective methods for diagnosing the disease, work to develop treatment options to confront the global epidemic and limit its spread, and propose solutions to the economic and social problems of the virus. --SPA 14:15 LOCAL TIME 11:15 GMT 0008 www.spa.gov.sa/w1316510