Scientific debates

The aim of this website is to curate commentary from ISC members and partners. It is not meant to be an exhaustive debate on COVID-19 issues, but rather, it highlights important discussions around these key themes:

Global Governance, Collaboration and Policy-Making

Peter Gluckman: Reflections on the evidentiary-politics interface

COVID-19: Let’s make sure we don’t learn the wrong lesson

The sound of science – the SARS-CoV-2 virus as a piece of classical music

The Pandemic and the Global Economy

The Three Ways of Looking at the Novel Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2

One size fits all? Why lockdowns might not be Africa’s best bet.

Combatting COVID-19 with Common Interests -Professor Paul Berkman, director of Tufts University’s Science Diplomacy Center

What does a country really need to do during a pandemic? Commentary from Dr Awg Bulgiba Awg Mahmud, Malaysia

Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic: Catastrophic Failures of the Science-Policy Interface by William Colglazier

Fostering trust and openness in international scientific advice by Alessandro Allegra and Julie Calkins

COVID-19: Rapidly Evolving Situation Calls for International Scientific Collaboration

Echoes of Ebola: social and political warnings for the COVID-19 response in African settings by Melissa Leach

IRDR Young Scientists Ranit Chatterjee and Repaul Kanji developed COVID-19 Risk Assessment Tool

‘Medications should be prescribed by doctors, not the president’: Luiz Davidovich, president of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences

Photo: Fernando Frazão/Agência Brasil

Innovative technologies and post-coronavirus economic recovery:A global value chains perspective

COVID‐19 Pandemic Response in Japan: What Is behind the Initial Flattening of the Curve?

COVID-19 Crisis: Lessons for Recovery

COVID-19 and the Futility of Control in the Modern World

Economists warn abrupt and premature lockdown lift risks higher death toll and double-dip recession

Innovative measures needed to safeguard elections during COVID, British Academy briefing highlights

Vaccine hesitancy threatens to undermine pandemic response

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

Sustainability has a solid record as a paradigm of resilience and growth

The virus has made it clear: the future is now

Sustainability and the migrant experience in the COVID-19 crisis

Creating a climate friendly COVID-19 response as we find our way out of the pandemic

Tackling Climate Change with COVID-19 Urgency by Mary Robinson and Daya Reddy

Soil science beyond COVID-19 by Rattan Lal, International Union of Soil Sciences

Addressing the equity, freedom and sustainability deficits to maintain social progress despite COVID-19

Use the economic stimulus package to build resilient, climate-friendly economic structures argues Prof. Dr. Manfred Fischedick

Close the tap! COVID-19 and the need for convivial conservation

Risks and opportunities in responding to the coronavirus crisis by Prof. Dr. Dirk Messner

COVID-19 Can Help Wealthier Nations Prepare for a Sustainability Transition

How do we live with corona? – EADI

Building resilient societies after the COVID-19 pandemic

Biodiversity as insurance: aligning economic stimulus packages with long-term nature conservation goals

Coronavirus, crisis and the real Argentine economy: post-pandemic challenges

Tenets of Regenerative Agriculture in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic

COVID-19: Higher Education challenges and responses

Global Science TV: The facts about airborne transmission

An integrated approach to sustainable development, National Resilience, and COVID-19 responses: The case of Japan

Is COVID-19 shifting attitudes towards sustainability? A case study from Amsterdam

Data and the Digital Revolution

Rees Kassen, Professor of Evolutionary Biology, University of Ottawa explores how policymakers should use the wealth of COVID-19 data

Governance, technology and citizen behavior in pandemic: Lessons from COVID-19 in East Asia

A Data Ecosystem to Defeat COVID-19 by Bapon Fakhruddin 

Unpacking the innovation landscape for crisis-critical products, services and technologies in the Covid-19 pandemic

Rapid Foresight Survey ‘COVID-19: Where do we go from here?’

Podcast: Role of data for COVID response using Gujarat, India and London, UK as examples

Open Science

Coronavirus shows the urgency of ensuring that research gets into the public domain

Statement on Open Science by ISC President, Daya Reddy

Let’s avoid that IP gets in the way of fighting the Coronavirus / Covid19 pandemic!

AuthorAid continues to assist researchers in times of COVID-19 lockdown

Humanity cannot afford a COVID‑19 patent battle

Urban Health and Wellbeing

“The Poor Have A More Resilient Psychological Make-Up To Deal With Covid-19” By Saths Cooper, ISC Governing Board Member.

This is the best time to plan for urban Africa’s next health emergency

LIRA Grantee, Kareem Buyan asks: COVID-19 -Are Cities Entering the era of Disruptive Transformations to Sustainability?

Lagos’ size and slums will make stopping the spread of COVID-19 a tough task says Taibat Lawanson, a previous World Social Science Programme fellow

Understanding the different characteristics of African cities will be crucial in responding effectively to COVID-19 on the continent

Tolu Oni, an ISC LIRA grantee, and others, argue that informal settlements in the global south are not prepared for COVID-19, and key measures must be taken to halt the spread.

[VIDEO] Tolu Oni – How has the world changed and what challenges will we face post-COVID?

COVID-19 reveals the systemic nature of urban health globally

COVID-19 reveals the systemic nature of urban health globally

Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience

Building resilience against biological hazards and pandemics: COVID-19 and its implications for the Sendai Framework

Placing scientific knowledge, preparedness and public awareness at the core of disaster risk policy by Alik Ismail-Zadeh

Evolution of Science Systems

Covid-19 and Access to Scientific Knowledge, by Geoffrey Boulton

Bridging the gap in science communication

Science Will Not Come on a White Horse With a Solution

“Coronavirus means science is suddenly being done differently – and so is politics” – by Paul Nurse

Modernity without its clothes: The pandemic crisis shines a light on on futilities of control

Identifying Research Trends and Gaps in the Context of COVID-19

Post-COVID-19 Sociology – Sari Hanafi

A plea for global sociology in times of the coronavirus – Geoffrey Pleyers

Making Science Better: Lessons From the COVID-19 Front

Rebooting Science Diplomacy in the Context of COVID-19 – by Peter Gluckman and Vaughan Turekian

How can Covid-19 be the catalyst to decolonise development research?

Responding to COVID-19: Women scientists from developing

Crisis-Critical Intellectual Property: Findings From the COVID-19 Pandemic

Managing and responding to pandemics in higher educational institutions: initial learning from COVID-19

Podcast: Gender equity and diversity – innovating during a pandemic 

Why science is at the heart of the COVID-19 crisis

Co-production of Knowledge through Collaborative Learning

Global change research and the COVID-19 pandemic

Global Dimensions of Inequality and Social Cohesion

Social cohesion in a post-COVID world

Miniseries #1: “We fear that 2020 will be a lost year in global development”

Miniseries #2: “It is high time to reduce the vulnerabilities of migrant workers”

Miniseries #3: “Global recommendations to contain a pandemic cannot be accepted as universals”

Miniseries #4: “These deaths have become a part of daily normal life, a daily non-dramatic butchers’ bill”

Miniseries #5: “The world of tomorrow will never be the same as today”

Miniseries #6: “The emergency in the health sector caused by COVID-19 in Italy is highlighting the marked social inequality that has divided the country since its unification”

Miniseries #7: “The global crisis we face is of unprecedented dimensions. But our opportunity to challenge the global capitalist model is also unprecedented”

Miniseries #8: “Now is the time for errors of inclusion rather than exclusion”

Miniseries #9: “If humans had equal value, why wouldn’t we be interested in global mega-plans for all infectious diseases?” 

Miniseries #10: “The nation’s struggle against the virus cannot be kept in isolation from the struggles against a caste and class-based society.”

Miniseries #11: “By sharing experiences and collaboration of research, I think there will be more ways to think about the issues of equity in the global context.” 

Miniseries #12: “We need a system that runs on steroids of care rather than one operating on opium of destruction.” 

From groundwater to coronavirus: local community responses in two villages in Algeria and Morocco

A pandemic of blindness: uneven experiences of rural communities under COVID-19 lockdown in India

COVID-19 and Human Development – UNDP

Addressing the societal and human impact of the COVID-19 pandemic

Addressing societal challenges using transdisciplinary research

Crystallographers unite to tackle coronavirus

Were we all trapped? Reflections on immobility during a global pandemic

Readyfor a Nocturnal Virus: Coronavirus, Public Policy Decisions, and Violation of Rights in Five Municipalitiesin Sonora,Mexico

Fighting COVID-19 in the Brazilian Amazon has exposed multiple threats and vulnerabilities – but also hope

COVID-19 and Inequality: Responses from the Pacific Ocean

COVID-19 and Inequality: Governing with Compassion on the African Continent

Webinar: Urban Inequality and Securitization

Our aim is to to promote discussion on the contemporary global context for international science in an era of pandemic. If you or your organization would like to contribute, please use the submission form.