How can we reimagine future global research post COVID-19?

COVID-19 is reshaping the world, including the academic world. What we were familiar with as ‘normal’ is fading away and will need to be rewritten.

The COVID-19 pandemic is reshaping the ecology of global research, rebuilding the relationship among humans (for example, researchers, participants and stakeholders) and with non-human subjects (for instance, knowledge, resources and publications). The research world is showing resilience, solidarity and humanism. The lockdown period is not a work retreat. Rather, it is a challenging time for academics to work under restrictions and uncertainty. .

While countries are being locked down, science has become more open. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, an increasing number of funding bodies, publishers, journals, institutions and researchers are embracing open science. Publications, courses, archives and databases are shared online freely, openly, quickly and widely. Such open data, including genome sequences, has enabled an early start worldwide to develop diagnostics and vaccines against COVID-19. For COVID-related research, the number of preprints soars, peer-review procedures are accelerated and open access to publications is granted with special temporary schemes to remove paywalls.