From Centuries to Hours: The Journey of Research into Practice

Abstract

COVID-19 has made the research-policy nexus visible as never before. Public health officials, doctors and scientists are standing alongside political and other leaders all around the world to promote research-informed health behaviors to ‘flatten the curve’ of this global pandemic. Proper hand hygiene, physical distancing and use of masks are now either recommended or mandated everyday public health behaviors across the world. Obviously, application of research to public problem solving is not new. However, the pace of the journey from research to policy and practice has shortened at a similar exponential rate as the spread of the virus. This paper provides a historical overview of research-informed policy and practice. In doing so, it aims to build an understanding of how research is able to address COVID-related policy questions in almost real-time; how the demand-side consequences of this global pandemic have advanced research-informed policy and practice; and how policymakers can harness research to solve public policy problems in the future.