NCRM Co-Director Professor Melanie Nind recently took up the invitation to speak to Government Social Research (GSR) about her team’s work on changing research practices for the COVID-19 pandemic.
Addressing around 30 GSR heads of profession, Professor Nind explained that new and adapted practices were at various stages of development.
Discussing the session, she said: "Selecting headline messages from complex findings was a challenge, but I decided to focus on how adaptations and innovations in response to the crisis and ongoing uncertainty are at different stages of maturity. Some are still at an early stage, some are at a critical juncture regarding potential sustainability and some are becoming quite embedded."
This subject was the focus of a recent paper published by Professor Nind and colleagues Dr Andy Coverdale and Dr Robert Meckin.
The paper, Research practices for a pandemic and an uncertain future: synthesis of the learning among the social research community 2020–2022, was published in the International Journal of Social Research Methodology.
Professor Nind said: "Research in this area is important for underlining how responses to crisis, even methodological ones, need to keep adapting in a process of ongoing transformation. We are planning another session with more time to explore this further."