UN Research Roadmap for the COVID-19 Recovery

Project overview

Dr. Steven Hoffman, Scientific Director of the CIHR Institute of Population and Public Health (CIHR-IPPH) has been invited by the United Nations Deputy Secretary-General to lead a participatory process to identify research priorities that will support an equitable global socio-economic recovery from COVID-19 and continued progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Building on the work of the UN COVID-19 economic and social recovery plan, the UN Research Roadmap for the COVID-19 Recovery aims to transform COVID-19 recovery into a rapid learning initiative – one where national and international responses can be informed by rigorous social scientific evidence generated in the forthcoming recovery period. By developing a research agenda at the outset of recovery, early response efforts can inform later responses, enabling countries around the world to learn from one another as they aim to build back better.

In developing the UN Research Roadmap, CIHR will lead the effort to engage researchers, implementers, funders and citizens around the world to identify and prioritize knowledge needs and research areas for rebuilding in a post-pandemic era and safeguarding progress towards achieving the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).

Essential to the research roadmap, research priorities will align to the five pillars identified in the UN Framework:

1. Protecting health services and systems
2. Ensuring social protection and basic services
3. Protecting jobs, small- and medium-sized enterprises and informal sector workers
4. Supporting macroeconomic response and multilateral collaboration
5. Strengthening social cohesion and community resilience

Additionally, environmental sustainability and gender equity will be considered in each of the pillars in an effort to build a more inclusive, gender-equal and sustainable world, with specific attention to at-risk populations experiencing the highest degree of socio-economic marginalization.

The UN Research Roadmap is intended to complement the WHO Coordinated Global Research Roadmap. While the WHO Roadmap focuses on the immediate health response, the UN Research Roadmap will address longer-term downstream socio-economic consequences of COVID-19. Together they provide important guidance on how the world can learn from our early choices to build back better.

UN Research Roadmap for the COVID-19 Recovery – Updates

• UN Research Roadmap for the COVID-19 Recovery

  Dear colleagues,

  I am writing to let you know about a new participatory process commissioned by the United Nations (UN) Deputy Secretary-General to develop a UN Research Roadmap for the COVID-19 Recovery. This Roadmap will identify the top research priorities needed to support an equitable global socio-economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and accelerate progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The intention in developing this research agenda at the outset of recovery is to ensure that early response efforts can inform later responses, enabling countries around the world to learn from one another as they aim to build back better.

  I will be sharing regular updates in order to ensure that key partners and stakeholders are kept informed about our progress in developing this research roadmap over the next several weeks. I hope you find this information useful. Please also help us by forwarding this email to anyone who you think might be interested in learning about this UN Research Roadmap effort.

  By way of background, the UN Research Roadmap for the COVID-19 Recovery will build on the work of the UN’s existing COVID-19 socio-economic recovery framework, aiming to transform COVID-19 recovery into a rapid learning initiative – one where national and international responses can be informed by rigorous research evidence generated in the forthcoming recovery period. Research priorities will align to the five pillars identified in the UN socio-economic recovery framework:

  1. Protecting health services and systems
  2. Ensuring social protection and basic services
  3. Protecting jobs, small- and medium-sized enterprises and informal sector workers
  4. Supporting macroeconomic response and multilateral collaboration
  5. Strengthening social cohesion and community resilience

  Additionally, environmental sustainability and gender equity will be considered in each of the five pillars in an effort to build a more inclusive, gender-equal and sustainable world, with specific attention to at-risk populations experiencing the highest degree of socio-economic marginalization.

  Having been asked to lead the development of this UN Research Roadmap, my colleagues and I at the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) aim to engage as many researchers, policymakers, implementers, funders and citizens around the world as our short timeframe allows. We have initiated three parallel streams of activities to inform the Roadmap’s development. First, we have convened five steering groups – one for each of the five pillars in the UN socio-economic recovery framework – composed of senior leaders from 38 different research funding agencies and every UN region. Second, we have commissioned five scoping reviews to identify what is already known about each of the five pillars and where are current knowledge gaps requiring further attention. Third, with the support of the UN Office for Partnerships and Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC), we are undertaking several group consultations with a focus on implementation leaders and young researchers in the Global South.

  We at CIHR are delighted to be leading the development of this Research Roadmap in support of the UN’s efforts to help all countries build back better from the COVID-19 pandemic. In doing so, we have received great support from our partners across the Government of Canada, including the Canada Foundation for Innovation, Global Affairs Canada, Grand Challenges Canada, IDRC, Natural Sciences & Engineering Research Council, Public Health Agency of Canada, and Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council, as well as from across the UN system, from GloPID-R’s Funders’ Forum for Social Science Research, from UK Research & Innovation, from the International Science Council, and from so many of our counterparts and other scientific organizations around the world.

  Thank you in advance for forwarding this email to anyone who you think might be interested in staying updated about this endeavour. I look forward to sharing more with you in the upcoming weeks.

  Best,
  Steven

  Steven J. Hoffman JD PhD LLD
  Lead, UN Research Roadmap for the COVID-19 Recovery
  Scientific Director, CIHR Institute of Population & Public Health

• UN Research Roadmap for the COVID-19 Recovery – Update #1 on Process and Progress

  Dear colleagues,

  We are continuing to work towards the completion of the UN Research Roadmap for the COVID-19 Recovery and significant progress has already been made. With five steering groups, five scoping reviews, and several consultations all underway, I would like to share a few details about how we are using these inputs in the development of the roadmap.

  When we began working on this initiative, we assembled five steering groups corresponding to each of the five pillars outlined in the UN’s existing COVID-19 socio-economic recovery framework. Members of the steering groups come from six continents across all income economies, representing 37 different research funding agencies with gender parity. We are grateful to the steering group members and co-chairs who are working to identify the most pressing research questions in their mandate areas. Each committee has met at least twice and will continue meeting throughout the rest of the month.

  The five steering groups are chaired by:

  • Pillar 1 - Health Systems - Jeremy Farrar, Director, Wellcome Trust, UK, and Glenda Grey, President, Medical Research Council, South Africa
  • Pillar 2 - Social Protection - Angela Liberatore, Head of Unit on Social Sciences and Humanities, European Research Council, and Bhushan Patwardhan, Chairman, Indian Council of Social Sciences Research
  • Pillar 3 - Economic Recovery - Ted Hewitt, President, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and Nísia Trindade Lima, President, FIOCRUZ, Brazil
  • Pillar 4 - Multilateral Collaboration - Thilinakumari Kandanamulla, Scientific Officer, National Science Foundation, Sri Lanka, and John-Arne Røttingen, Chief Executive, Research Council of Norway
  • Pillar 5 - Social Cohesion - Kellina Craig-Henderson, Deputy Assistant Director for Social, Behavioral & Economic Sciences, US National Science Foundation, and Aisen Etcheverry, National Director, Agencia Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo, Chile

  In addition to the steering committees, we have also commissioned five scoping reviews that will provide thorough background information on existing knowledge in each of the pillars, as well as identify potential knowledge gaps. These reviews are now complete and are now informing discussions in steering groups and other consultations.

  Our final input to the UN Research Roadmap process consists of the many consultations we are undertaking to ensure a comprehensive view of the COVID-19 socio-economic recovery from numerous perspectives. For example, Canada’s International Development Research Centre hosted a virtual consultation with us on August 18, 2020 that focused on gender equity and sustainability and privileged voices from policy leaders and young researchers based in the Global South. Meetings with UN Resident Coordinators and civil society organizations have provided us with on-the-ground insights across diverse contexts, and we have benefited greatly from the support of several UN entities, including the UN Environment Program, UN Women, International Organization for Migration, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, United Nations Populations Fund, UNICEF, and especially the UN Office for Partnerships and the UN Development Coordination Office.

  With the assistance of the International Science Council (ISC) and the International Network for Government Science Advice (INGSA), we have additionally reached out to the ISC’s member academies and research councils and INGSA’s 5000 members who are based in over 100 countries.

  There is still a lot to accomplish, but over the past few weeks we have seen what is possible when we work collaboratively with research, policy, and implementation experts worldwide. It is exciting to see the UN Research Roadmap start to take shape. I look forward to sharing a bit about our initial learnings in my next update.

  Please feel free to forward this email to anyone who you think might be interested in learning about this initiative.

  Best,
  Steven

  Steven J. Hoffman JD PhD LLD
  Lead, UN Research Roadmap for the COVID-19 Recovery
  Scientific Director, CIHR Institute of Population & Public Health

• UN Research Roadmap for the COVID-19 Recovery – Update #2 on Early Findings

  Dear colleagues,

  As our work on the UN Research Roadmap for the COVID-19 Recovery continues, we have begun to integrate insights from our steering groups, scoping reviews and consultations. This update will outline a few of the key insights that have emerged thus far as well as some early lessons for research ecosystems.

  With scoping reviews now complete, a clearer understanding has emerged about how much is known and not known across each of the five pillars of the UN’s socio-economic recovery framework, namely health systems, social protection, economic recovery, multilateral collaboration, and social cohesion. This understanding is essential for identifying strengths and gaps within our existing knowledge base upon which we can articulate research priorities needed to build back better from COVID-19.

  Through all of the processes we have undertaken thus far, what has become clear is that COVID-19 has served as a grand revealer for the depth of consequences caused by the structural problems we have long known we need to address. In this way, COVID-19 presents an opportunity to better understand these problems, bring renewed attention to solutions that have long been discussed, develop fundamentally new ways of addressing todays’ challenges, and motivate evidence-informed action and implementation. Indeed, many of the priorities emerging from this UN Research Roadmap process are not actually new; however, COVID-19 makes some priorities newly essential and the pandemic newly emphasizes their importance for accelerating progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals.

  To the extent that a single unifying theme has emerged throughout this process, it is that we live in an interdependent world that requires us to think and act in ways that account for interdependencies across populations, systems and time. With shared risks come shared responsibilities, yet we do not yet have all the knowledge we need to guide our actions going forward. That means we need research that can help us better understand the interdependent world in which we live and how to ensure that our world allows everyone to thrive, even during emergencies like COVID-19, both at the present and in the future.

  Finally, in addition to identifying research priorities, our process has identified numerous building blocks needed to fully harness the power of science for social good across contexts. The fact that an effective response to and recovery from COVID-19 so evidently depends on science highlights the core function that science and scientific ecosystems must play in all societies. This requires everyone to consider how we can best build and enhance our scientific ecosystems while maximally mobilizing the knowledge and innovations they offer for the benefit of all.

  As always, please feel free to forward this email to anyone who you think might be interested in learning about the UN Research Roadmap for the COVID-19 Recovery initiative.

  Best,
  Steven

  Steven J. Hoffman JD PhD LLD
  Lead, UN Research Roadmap for the COVID-19 Recovery
  Scientific Director, CIHR Institute of Population & Public Health

• Launch: UN Research Roadmap for the COVID-19 Recovery

  Dear colleagues,

  Earlier this summer I was invited by the United Nations (UN) Deputy Secretary-General to lead the development of a UN Research Roadmap for the COVID-19 Recovery. The goal of this Research Roadmap was to identify the top research priorities needed to support a better socio-economic recovery from the COVID-19 crisis and accelerate progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The intention in developing this research agenda at the outset of recovery was to ensure that early response efforts can inform later responses, enabling countries around the world to learn from one another as we work towards emerging from this pandemic.

  I am pleased to share with you the UN Research Roadmap for the COVID-19 Recovery [ PDF (8.82 MB) - external link ] that was published today. Developed in just 10 weeks, the Roadmap outlines 25 research priorities for the socio-economic recovery from COVID-19 that will help answer the most pressing question of all: How can COVID-19 socio-economic recovery efforts be purposefully designed to stimulate equity, resilience, sustainability and progress towards the SDGs? The Roadmap also provides an overview of science strategies for a better recovery as well as actions that researchers, research funding agencies, governments, civil society organizations and UN entities can take to act upon it.

  By way of background, the Research Roadmap builds on the work of the UN's existing COVID-19 socio-economic recovery framework, aiming to transform COVID-19 recovery into a rapid learning initiative – one where national and international responses can be informed by rigorous research evidence generated in the forthcoming recovery period. All of the research priorities are aligned to the five pillars identified in the UN socio-economic recovery framework:

  1. Protecting health services and systems
  2. Ensuring social protection and basic services
  3. Protecting jobs, small- and medium-sized enterprises and informal sector workers
  4. Supporting macroeconomic response and multilateral collaboration
  5. Strengthening social cohesion and community resilience

  We are grateful for the tremendous support from our partners across the Government of Canada, including the Canada Foundation for Innovation, Global Affairs Canada, Grand Challenges Canada, Health Canada, International Development Research Centre, Natural Sciences & Engineering Research Council, Public Health Agency of Canada, and Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council, as well as from across the UN system, from GloPID-R, from the International Science Council, from the 38 research funding agencies that served on five steering groups, and from so many others around the world. I am particularly grateful to the core Roadmap project team – Adèle Cassola, Marisa Creatore, Rachelle Desrochers, Ariane Klassen, Morgan Lay and Fatima Mussa – for putting in many late nights to complete this effort by our deadline.

  We live in a world where people, systems and generations are all interdependent, which means the actions we take today during COVID-19 must simultaneously work towards a more equitable, resilient and sustainable future. Science represents the world's best chance for guiding the attainment of that better future. I hope you might find this Roadmap to be useful for your efforts during the ongoing pandemic.

  Best,
  Steven

  Steven J. Hoffman JD PhD LLD
  Lead, UN Research Roadmap for the COVID-19 Recovery
  Scientific Director, CIHR Institute of Population & Public Health

• UN Research Roadmap for the COVID-19 Recovery – Update #3 on the Open Dialogue Event

  Dear colleagues,

  Following the release of the UN Research Roadmap for the COVID-19 Recovery in November 2020, I’m pleased to share that the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and the UN Office for Partnerships will be co-hosting a two-hour virtual Open Dialogue with UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed on Science for Development in the Context of COVID-19 on Friday, January 29, 2021, from 10 am to 12 pm ET. Participation will include the heads of over 40 international research funding agencies, diplomats from over 100 national governments, and senior leaders from UN departments, agencies, programs and other entities. A live webcast of the event will be available via http://webtv.un.org to enable the participation of researchers, civil society organizations, representatives from the news media, and members of the general public.

  By way of background, the UN Research Roadmap for the COVID-19 Recovery was developed to emphasize the power of science for informing a better recovery from COVID-19 that leaves no one behind. Building on the Roadmap, this Open Dialogue event is designed to bring heads of research funding agencies from around the world together with the UN Deputy Secretary-General and other UN leaders to discuss how the global research community can collaborate on recovery research during the COVID-19 pandemic and throughout the “Decade for Action” to achieve the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

  The Dialogue event is designed as a global conversation. Following remarks from UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed and a brief presentation from me on the UN Research Roadmap, the dialogue will focus on two key themes: 1) how science can contribute to recovering more equitably, resiliently and sustainably from the COVID-19 pandemic; and 2) strategies for improving collaboration among the world’s research funding agencies, research institutions, and the UN. It is our hope that this event brings greater attention to the important role that science can play during the COVID-19 pandemic and further builds momentum for urgent investments in science that can inform recovery efforts.

  Thank you to all who have helped us build awareness for the UN Research Roadmap thus far and who have made use of it in their own processes. Please feel free to promote the live webcast or recording of this event through your networks and social media channels.

  Best,
  Steven

  Steven J. Hoffman JD PhD LLD
  Lead, UN Research Roadmap for the COVID-19 Recovery
  Scientific Director, CIHR Institute of Population & Public Health
  Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Government of Canada

• UN Research Roadmap for the COVID-19 Recovery – Update #4 Acting on the Roadmap

  Dear colleagues,

  On January 29, 2021, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the UN Office for Partnerships co-hosted an Open Dialogue with UN Deputy-Secretary General Amina J. Mohammed on Science for Development in the Context of COVID-19. This two-hour event was a great success and created an opportunity to build on momentum from the UN Research Roadmap for the COVID-19 Recovery. As a follow-up to this event, we have just published a meeting note [ PDF (1.2 MB) - external link ] that summarizes the dialogue and outlines the key contributions from all participants. A recording of the event itself is also still available on UN WebTV.

  I am pleased to see that enthusiasm for the UN Research Roadmap continues to build. We have now translated it into French [ PDF (9.2 MB) - external link ] (in French only) and, thanks to our partners at FIOCRUZ, Portuguese and Spanish versions will soon be published. Any additional translations or related materials will be posted on the Roadmap webpage as they become available. We are also beginning to measure progress on the various recommendations laid out in the UN Research Roadmap such as through the COVID-19 Research Project Tracker by UKCDR and GloPID-R as well as commitments to action. For example, the Trans-Atlantic Platform for Social Sciences and Humanities Research has recently launched the Recovery, Renewal and Resilience in the Post-Pandemic World research call that builds on the priorities set out in the UN Research Roadmap. Finally, several regional dialogue events are being planned which will help situate the relevance of the UN Research Roadmap in local contexts.

  If you are interested in hosting a national or regional dialogue around the UN Research Roadmap, please feel free to contact morgan.lay@globalstrategylab.org who can help to facilitate connections with relevant regional UN entities. I would also ask you to please share with us any ways in which you have used the UN Research Roadmap to guide your work as part of our ongoing promotion and tracking efforts.

  Thank you again for your collaboration and support throughout this process and thank you to everyone who participated in the recent event with the UN Deputy Secretary-General. I look forward to our continued work together to leverage the power of science for a more equitable, resilient and sustainable future.

  Best,
  Steven

  Steven J. Hoffman JD PhD LLD
  Lead, UN Research Roadmap for the COVID-19 Recovery
  Scientific Director, CIHR Institute of Population & Public Health
  Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Government of Canada

Date modified:

2021-05-20