Research response to COVID-19 highlighted in new report

During the pandemic, the government used the knowledge and findings of our nation’s researchers and scientists to help shape policy and the national response to the pandemic. Researchers from a broad background of disciplines guided decision making and helped to better understand COVID-19 and its ongoing implications for society.

Key projects highlighted in the report include research into new ways to rapidly characterise viral strains through genomic sequencing, production of hand sanitisers from wine-industry waste, and modelling of airborne transmission which informed public health measures to reduce infection rates.

The report also confirms that our research is high-quality and contributes to global knowledge bases, improving understanding of the pandemic and its effects on our world. It shows that researchers have taken advantage of the opportunities presented by the pandemic to establish new collaborative relationships and produce world-leading research that has led to significant improvements in our collective wellbeing.

Other areas highlighted in the report include how funding has supported innovative organisations, what our fields of research are, our research quality, the role of early career researchers and the characteristics of publications. It is illustrated with vignettes provided by the Research, Science and Innovation sector.

The report takes information from the COVID-19 research database with other data sources including the Dimensions bibliometric dataset. This is the second COVID-19 Research Response report to be published, with the first published in July 2020.

Read the COVID-19 Research Response report