COVID-19 – Shape the Future

In November 2021, the British Academy, in partnership with the Academy of Medical Sciences, convened a roundtable on geographic and historic patterns of health inequalities in the UK.

This report outlines the evidence on the long-term societal impacts of COVID-19 across a range of areas, building upon a series of expert reviews, engagement, synthesis and analysis across the SHAPE research community.

This report sets out an interrelated set of nine areas of long-term impact, seven strategic policy goals and five key principles of a facilitative policy environment for 2030. We aim here to provide decision-makers with a sense of how to start to respond to these longer-term impacts based on the current evidence, and how to shape the COVID decade.

November 2020

A summary of a British Academy workshop examining the factors that make a community more vulnerable to COVID-19 and outlining ways that central and local governments can more effectively prepare for future waves of the virus.

This paper summarises the discussions held during twenty policy and research workshops which considered topics under three broad themes relevant to the post-pandemic future: revitalising societal well-being, recreating an inclusive economy around purpose, and revisiting the histories and cultures of science, policy and politics.

This report proposes a cautious and prolonged reopening strategy over an abrupt end to lockdown measures to allow the economy to restructure around physical distancing requirements – a likely feature of the “new normal”.

This briefing draws on existing experience of elections held during the COVID-19 pandemic and previous health crises to address five areas of vulnerability: inclusive and accountable electoral management, poll worker safeguarding, interinstitutional collaboration, feasible and effective election observation, and the risk of electoral violence.

This briefing highlights key insights from research on other crisis situations that we hope can inform recovery from the impacts of COVID-19 as well as management of responses to future pandemics.

This rapid review of the science of the effectiveness of different face mask types and coverings and behavioural adherence is from the Royal Society and the British Academy to assist in the understanding of COVID-19.

Based on an idea popularised by Cass Sunstein and Richard Thaler, nudge theory encourages us to do the “right thing” by making the desired action easy, more obvious and more normal. But how far does nudging work in the context of a global pandemic, and what are its limits?

The course of human history has been shaped by war, disease and natural disaster. Whether the Black Death, world wars or COVID-19, these crises have sent shockwaves across the globe but how can insights from the many catastrophes of the past can help us to make sense of the present?

Some of the greatest works of arts, from Goya’s The Disasters of War to Picasso’s Guernica, have been produced during troubled times. In this event, Simon Schama recounts the remarkable stories of artists who, under extreme stress, have created something unprecedented, altering the course of art forever.

Creatives have risen to the challenge of sharing – and championing – culture online, but fear for the future of the entire sector remains. Can virtual venues ever replace the thrill of a live performance?

The pandemic of 2020 has caused untold disruption around the world, and the United Kingdom has suffered particularly seriously. What kind of public accounting will there be for the way in which the virus has played out in Britain?