Within the framework of its COVID-19 special action plan, the AUF launched, from April 10 to May 5, an international call for projects to support, within its member establishments, initiatives by students, student-engineers and young researchers linked to the pandemic.

An exceptional fund of 500,000 euros had been initially devoted, before the great success of this call - nearly 2,000 projects from 79 countries, and the quality of the projects proposed - led the AUF to double its grant to reach one million Euros. A significant sum which will finance 92 projects from 87 member institutions in 44 countries, said the body in a press release.

The Moroccan universities selected for this international call for projects are the Abdelmalek Essaâdi University in Tétouan with the project "Support for the effort of Fab Labs in the fight against CORONAVIRUS in Morocco", the Chouaïb Doukkali University in El-Jadida with the project "Rapid serological test to detect the presence of anti-COVID-19 antibodies using a SMART BIOCAPTER incorporating Cloud Computing technology", Hassan II University in Casablanca with the project "Repositioning of drugs and screening in silico of certain compounds derived from natural resources to combat COVID-19 via molecular modeling methods", and finally the Mohammed V-Rabat University with the project "Evaluation of remote higher education practices during the pandemic of COVID-19".

The goal of this call for projects is to support the response of the university community to the pandemic and to support the development of solutions with immediate technological and/or social impact to help health systems and populations face this unprecedented health crisis.