The current global challenge has provoked interesting approaches to innovation – from collaborative working and open innovation to crowdsourcing and repurposing of labs and equipment.

If you have some interesting examples – then R&D Management has a call for papers for its special issue.“Providing solutions in emergencies: R&D and innovation management during COVID-19”

Background for the Special Issue:

The reality of this unexpected global health emergency caused by the Covid-19 virus is that it is reshaping everything we know about social and economic systems. As the social/economic consequences of the
required Government actions to ‘flatten the curve’, we are also seeing evidence of a global phenomenon: the emergence of rapid and potentially disruptive innovative efforts, from both traditional and eclectic sources.

• Private and public R&D laboratories are rapidly obtaining results for promising and innovative medical treatments and vaccines
• Digital technologies (e.g. phone apps) are being used to obtain updated maps of the infection spreading
• High-tech – and non high-tech – companies are rapidly increasing or transforming their production to meet the demand of complex medical devices, or components.
• Development of crowdsourced solutions and the use of 3D Printing to manufacture innovative or missing components for medical or personal protective equipment
• Universities are working on new algorithms for data analysis and are even involved in manufacturing processes for chemicals and electronics.

R&D and innovation are therefore responding rapidly to this emergency, both in the public and in the private sector.

The R&D Management special issue is calling for papers

A first topic for discussion is: How did the scientific community attempt to anticipate, prepare and protect the world from this crisis? What kind of obstacles, if any, have prevented these measures from fully working?

The second topic for discussion focuses more on the more positive side of this crisis: How science, R&D and innovation communities are having a positive impact? When and how is this occurring and what are the implications for innovation best practice in the future?

Case for the Special Issue:

Given this background, in this Special Issue we are expecting contributions which describe cases and experiences through which academic, managerial and policy contributions and insights can be
obtained. Of course, contributions based on the use of large data sets and/or aiming at theory development are also very welcome. Submissions should be in the style of the R&D Management
Journal, i.e. scientifically rigorous papers, although submissions can be shorter than the usual standard and single case focused.

The main aim is to share meaningful experiences so that they can be useful both for the current crisis and for future – hopefully less harmful – situations.

Paper Submission

Given the exceptional nature of this Special Issue and the relevance and need to collect and disseminate evidence in a timely manner, we have two interrelated yet distinct calls and thus are
setting two separate deadlines.

The deadline for the first call is set at May 15, 2020. For this first call, we invite shorter than usual articles, focused heavily on interesting and impactful cases of Covid-19 innovation and the
innovation best practice that should be considered by future developments to facilitate societal benefit.

These submissions will have a theoretical underpinning of the case focus but it may not be as developed as for submissions of the second call. The goal of the editorial team is to have all
reviews/amendments completed and articles published before the end of 2020.

The deadline for the second call is set at September 30, 2020. We expect that contributors to this will have the opportunity of writing more ‘traditional’ and comprehensive works, reflective of the
theoretical implications of the case practice.

Submission Guidelines

Submissions should be made through the Scholar One submission system: https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/rndm
Please select the ‘Special Issue’ article type on submission and indicate that the manuscript is to be considered for ‘Providing solutions in emergencies: R&D and innovation management during Covid-19’ when prompted at Step 1.

For formatting information you are encouraged to follow the author guidelines at:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/page/journal/14679310/homepage/forauthors.html