Thread on 'Covidisation' of research & scholarship.

I am sure there are folks out there, especially students, who are wondering if their work has any relevance or value in this new world. Should they drop what they are doing & work on #Covid_19 or infectious diseases now?

Suddenly, there are so many calls for grants on COVID, governments are investing millions, philanthropies are cropping up everywhere, and journals are calling for papers. This can result in FOMO.

The availability of new and large amounts of $$$ has suddenly attracted researchers who have never done any infectious diseases work in their entire careers. Everyone thinks they have something to offer, regardless of their primary discipline or expertise or passion.

In part, this make sense - everyone is trying to be helpful in a crisis. And there is a real need for diverse, inter-disciplinary expertise to handle complex issues thrown up by the pandemic. So, there are opportunities.

But there are risks:
- diversion of valuable expertise in other areas to a temporary pandemic crisis
- opportunity costs involved in pursuing research angles that might not go anywhere, or be redundant because so many others are chasing the same angles

There is the risk of getting the research completely wrong, because of lack of training & insight in that area (we can already see the pre-print mania, with some rubbish out there).

The risk is putting in a lot of effort, only to find the problem disappear next year.

I hope, as an academic community, we all recognize and acknowledge that:

1. Every area of research is valuable and necessary. Each academic should focus on what they do best and what they are best trained to study.

2. Diversity in research is critical for any society.

3. All areas of research deserve funding and support. Real passion for a specific topic should count for something!

4. A crisis cannot and should not decide what is valuable, relevant or worthy of support. Crises come and go.

5. Governments, funders & universities should be thoughtful about the risks of Covidisation & not ignore their broad base of researchers.

We don't know what the next crisis will be, but we will all be better off, if we had a long-term vision & strategy for research & scholarship

My blog tries to dig a little deeper and hopefully will elicit some feedback/reflections. https://naturemicrobiologycommunity.nature.com/users/20892-madhukar-pai/posts/65638-covidisation-of-academic-research-opportunities-and-risks