Conclusions: An opportunity for community reinvention in
academia
The pandemic has illuminated that the way we do Science is changing.
Indeed, we are now in a process of adapting to this new reality. During
this transition, each of us first need to take care of our mental and
physical health, we need to help each other, and adopt new practices to
maintain our capacity to focus and to promote resilience in our research
practice. Within a very short time, we have shifted from a 100 percent
in-person model to an almost completely remote one. However, in this
process we have also adopted new practices that hold large potential to
serve as a foundation for a more international, collaborative, and open
science model underpinned by technological developments. The question
here is: “What do we want to keep for the future, and how?” The
COVID-19 crisis presents the opportunity for researchers and
institutions to transition to a new hybrid model that integrates remote
and in-person workflows, taking advantage of the new skills that have
recently been developed. It also presents us multiple opportunities to
address long-lasting issues in academia, such as the lack of diversity,
equity and inclusivity. To take the final steps and use the momentum, we
not only individually need to take action, but need the commitment and
support of our institutions and research agencies. If we succeed to
transform this new workstyle into routines, it could serve as a model
for a community reinvention in academia. We should not miss the
opportunity to take many of the eight insights for conducting Science as
a foundation to design the community that we want to work in.