{"id":71076,"date":"2021-03-12T12:01:55","date_gmt":"2021-03-12T17:01:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=71076"},"modified":"2021-03-12T13:31:51","modified_gmt":"2021-03-12T18:31:51","slug":"trials-and-triumphs-characterize-brock-research-during-the-year-of-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2021\/03\/trials-and-triumphs-characterize-brock-research-during-the-year-of-covid-19\/","title":{"rendered":"Trials and triumphs characterize Brock research during the year of COVID-19"},"content":{"rendered":"

NOTE: This is one in a series of articles published by <\/span>The Brock News<\/span> to mark the one-year anniversary <\/span>of Brock University suspending in-person, on-campus classes due to the COVID-19 pandemic. To read all of the articles in the series, click here<\/a>.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

If there\u2019s one illustration that best captures COVID-19\u2019s impact on research activities and output at Brock University over the past year, it would be the shape of a ‘U’.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an analogy Michelle McGinn, Associate Vice-President, Research uses to describe the ebb and flow of research activities for many scholars around the world, including at Brock.<\/p>\n

The initial weeks following the dramatic March 13, 2020 announcement<\/a> of the suspension of in-person classes and labs saw a flurry of research papers being written, says McGinn.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the early phases, many people had activities they could be working on from data collected earlier,\u201d she says. \u201cThey had those papers they hadn\u2019t finished off, they no longer had to fly off to international conferences, since those had been cancelled. It created a bit of a window for writing before they needed access to new data.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Michelle McGinn, Associate Vice-President, Research.<\/p><\/div>\n

Some laboratory teams that couldn\u2019t access their facilities in early days took the opportunity<\/a> to conduct extensive literature reviews and think of broader questions around their experiments.<\/p>\n

A number of researchers, particularly in the social sciences, modified their existing projects or created new ones to investigate the impacts of COVID-19, especially on children and families, through online interviews and questionnaires.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany community members were home and had fewer activities in their lives in the first months, so they were available to respond to those research invitations,\u201d says McGinn.<\/p>\n

With increasing clarity around public health advice and sector practices, spring and summer 2020 saw increased access to research activities and facilities. Brock\u2019s Research Access Task Force, which McGinn chairs, consulted faculty and student researchers on principles, priorities and needs, in order to formulate the first major campus access plan after the March closure.<\/p>\n

As a result, researchers had greater access to most lab facilities and research participants were allowed on campus.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Tim Kenyon, Vice-President, Research at Brock University.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cRight from start of the pandemic, Brock scholars and graduate students worked to find ways of adapting to reduced access to facilities, and to many challenges they faced under unprecedented circumstances,\u201d says Brock\u2019s Vice-President, Research Tim Kenyon.<\/p>\n

In addition to co-ordinating research logistics, the Office of the Vice-President, Research focused on mitigating the gaps, stresses and uncertainties reported by researchers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe University created a series of funds and programs that help to alleviate time constraints, enable research training for students, ensure that safety protocols are known and supported, and provide access to personal protective equipment,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Examples of some of these supports include:<\/p>\n