¡°We now, essentially, have a department of Covid-19 research,¡± explained Graham Cooke, professor of infectious disease at Imperial College London of his institution¡¯s transformation in recent weeks.

Setting up a new department in a matter of days was, he believed, an example of how seriously and speedily the UK¡¯s research base has been responding to the unprecedented global health crisis.

Imperial¡¯s modelling group, whose analysis triggered a shutdown of national life after it that some 250,000 people in Britain would die under the government¡¯s previous strategy, is the most high-profile work from the university, but there are many others working on the different challenges ahead, added Professor Cooke.

¡°Our university shut down a week ago, but we have repurposed our medical buildings to run Covid-19 research to look at vaccines, diagnostic development and new therapeutic drugs,¡± he said.

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¡°Our engineering department is looking at repurposing its facilities to make ventilator valves,¡± he added, saying the institution had been ¡°overwhelmed by the response¡± of researchers offering their services.

And yet, Professor Cooke noted, Imperial¡¯s remarkable response to a global health crisis ¨C its application of expertise to real-world problems ¨C is ¡°actually what universities do all the time¡±.

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¡°It is only very visible now because it is happening in a time-critical way,¡± he explained.

Other UK universities have also deployed their staff to tackle problems related to Covid-19. At the University of East Anglia, researchers have launched a project to 3D-print respirator parts, masks and other critical care equipment, while UCL has redirected dozens of staff towards clinical or testing roles.

While final-year student doctors and nurses have been recruited early to bolster NHS numbers, the crisis has not yet seen huge numbers of medically qualified scientists called back, said Professor Cooke. ¡°About a dozen or so have gone into hospitals. But many more, including senior managers, are ready to return to the front line and will do so over the next few weeks,¡± he said.

Trisha Greenhalgh, professor of primary care health sciences at the University of Oxford, said she had volunteered to return as a family doctor but had been told that she could not because, as a cancer survivor, she was deemed to be in a high-risk group. ¡°It raises the question of what to do with this dad¡¯s army group of doctors [in academia] ¨C everyone will have something wrong with them, even if it¡¯s just high blood pressure,¡± said Professor Greenhalgh.

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She added, however, that her expertise would be better used in research in any case, in particular advising clinicians and policymakers on how video consultations by GPs ¨C an area she has studied ? could be rolled out more widely. ¡°I?think the majority of doctor-patient interactions will need to be video or online¡­so I?have been working with policymakers on these ¡®total triage¡¯ systems, which are more important than ever,¡± she said.

More broadly, the Covid-19 pandemic has forced researchers to operate at hitherto unknown speed, Professor Greenhalgh said.

¡°If we are going to have any chance of contributing to this situation, we have to do research that goes from inception to publishing results in a matter of days, not years,¡± she said, adding that academia should recognise but ¡°engage with the trade-off between speed and thoroughness. It has been very interesting to see how research has stepped up to the plate and worked at the same pace as policymaking.¡±

jack.grove@timeshighereducation.com