Biological and statistical data has been prominent in guiding government responses and informing public debate during the COVID-19 pandemic. The complex models used to track and project the spread of coronavirus and the impacts of policy interventions require timely data from existing and novel sources, putting strains on established institutions and processes for data exchange. Conventional data institutions have been joined by new actors during the pandemic, requiring the rapid development of networks and practices in data collection, sharing, and analysis. This project examines how researchers, public health advisory committees, and epistemic communities engaged policymakers at multiple levels of government, in new and sometime unanticipated ways during COVID-19. This study addresses the challenges data specialists and expert advisors faced working within existing data sharing architectures and advisory systems, and how academic experts managed their expanded advisory and public communication roles.
DMRC research program
This project contributes to the research within the following DMRC research program:
Project team
Investigators
Project partner
- Cosmo Howard, Griffith University, Australia