SANH COVID-19 Meetings
The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns have greatly impacted the work and daily life of our SANH Partners from across South Asia and the UK. In order to better understand the impacts of the pandemic on the project and to explore possible mitigation options, a series of SANH COVID-19 Meetings were held this November. All our Hub members came together for a Plenary Meeting in October where SANH Director Mark Sutton and the Research Programme Leads gave a great overview of the progress of the projects and available options in response to COVID-19.
The Plenary meeting was then followed by a series of work package meetings where the specific impacts of COVID-19 on each work package were identified and possible mitigation strategies were explored. It was amazing to see so many of our SANH members join these incredibly productive discussions. The main impacts and delays were then summarised at the SANH Research Programme meetings and were discussed at the upcoming Executive and Advisory Group Meetings in December. These meetings have been incredibly useful and we now have a very clear understanding of how COVID-19 has impacted the project which will help us all better plan for the future. This information will also be shared with our funders UKRI so that they can fully understand how the project is progressing under these difficult circumstances.
Over the course of the SANH COVID-19 Meetings, it is clear that despite the challenges and limitations of the pandemic, our members have been working incredibly hard to continue the important work of our project. It has been fantastic to hear about all the innovative ways our partners have adapted to the pandemic, including focusing on detailed literature reviews, organising virtual training events and moving stakeholder engagement into online settings. The work package meetings were also a great opportunity to deepen the linkages between the work packages and many cross-work package activities are now being organised including a joint meeting with WP 3.1 and 3.2 to discuss collaboration on social science, a WP 3.2 workshop which will also include some WP 4.3 members and a RP 4 Modelling meeting.
The continued dedication of our SANH members is incredible and we really appreciate your continued hard work on the project. We thank everyone who attended the SANH COVID-19 Meetings and we hope that all our partners and their families keep safe and well as we work together to get through these difficult times.
