Director, Institute for Cellular and Molecular Medicine, University of Pretoria, South Africa; Director, South African Medical Research Council Extramural Unit for Stem Cell Research and Therapy, Department of Immunology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Pretoria, South Africa.
S Afr Med J. 2020 Jul 16;110(8):756-758.
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a major impact on research at universities. Universities around the world, including in South Africa, have been or are still closed as part of national lockdown strategies. Students have not been attending classes or doing hands-on experimental work, and students and academics have been working from home. Many thousands of students have had their university education interrupted, and for them, the resumption of learning programmes online, and where possible in research laboratories, is critically important. There is no question that as we emerge from lockdown we will not be entering a world that resembles a 'norm' as lived in the pre-COVID-19 era, and many changes will be required. Here we discuss the importance of research, the urgency to get things up and running again, and strategies that will need to be implemented to ensure that research activities continue. At the same time, it is necessary to ensure that students and staff are not exposed to risk in their research endeavours, which will require the development and implementation of risk management plans.
新冠疫情对大学研究产生了重大影响。包括南非在内的世界各地的大学都已经或仍在作为国家封锁策略的一部分关闭。学生们没有上课或进行实践实验，学生和学者们都在家工作。成千上万的学生的大学教育被中断，对他们来说，在线恢复学习计划，并且在可能的情况下在研究实验室中恢复学习计划至关重要。毫无疑问，随着我们走出封锁，我们将不会进入一个类似于新冠疫情前的“常态”世界，并且需要进行许多变革。在这里，我们讨论了研究的重要性，再次让事物恢复运转的紧迫性，以及确保研究活动继续进行所需实施的策略。同时，有必要确保学生和员工在研究工作中不会面临风险，这将需要制定和实施风险管理计划。
