Towards a European strategy to address the COVID-19 pandemic

A look into the future of the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe : an expert consultation

How will the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic develop in the coming months and years? Based on an expert survey, we examine key aspects that are likely to influence COVID-19 in Europe. The future challenges and developments will strongly depend on the progress of national and global vaccination programs, the emergence and spread of variants of concern, and public responses to nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs). In the short term, many people are still unvaccinated, VOCs continue to emerge and spread, and mobility and population mixing is expected to increase over the summer. Therefore, policies that lift restrictions too much and too early risk another damaging wave. This ch…

Analysis of research ideas: combining metaphors for research

This paper presents a framework – idea puzzle – for scientific analysis of research ideas. Analysis of research ideas is included in research planning ahead of research implementation and reporting. Research planning is traditionally based on the project metaphor for research which specifies linear tasks, deliverables and deadlines. Such a metaphor does not make explicit, however, decisions which are implicit in research tasks. This gap is fulfilled by the jigsaw puzzle metaphor which specifies interdependent and iterative decisions instead. Idea puzzle framework illustrates the jigsaw puzzle metaphor since it is a synthesis of scientific method in twenty one decisions. Such decisions speci…