Quarterly research and innovation literature review: Early insights into COVID-19

This is a Quarterly Review of academic literature on research and innovation for the second quarter of 2020. The current issue presents recent papers that analyse the role of R&I in the context of the COVID-19 crisis.

As highlighted in the review, R&I is at the core of the response to the coronavirus pandemic, as part of a fast and innovative healthcare response, but also for monitoring and containing the spread of the infection, with for instance Industry 4.0 providing solutions for the production of personal protection equipment. The current crisis is expected to have significant economic and social consequences. The growth and innovation potential of companies, in particular start-ups, are at risk, with experience from previous crises showing that availability of venture capital is likely to decrease with economic contraction. This calls for counter-measures to support a recovery that should build on bold industrial and investment policies. The emergency of the situation also changes the nature of our R&I activities: innovators and firms find themselves engaged in new relationships and we can observe remarkable shifts of funds to cope with the new virus.