On July 21, 2022, the Berkeley Population Center held a lunchtime brainstorming session to generate ideas on the following two interrelated questions:  

(a) What can the scientific community do in order to better prepare for the next pandemic? E.g., what infrastructure should we have in place, what research plans should be ready to pull off the shelf for quick implementation, or what research questions do we still need to answer from COVID-19 in order to better respond to the next threat? 

(b) What specific ideas do you (participant) have for COVID-19 and related research that you would like to see conducted, but that you yourself are unlikely to carry out? (We would like to create a public repository of such ideas, to encourage others to act on them.)

The brainstorming session was held in our Seminar Room, 310, Social Sciences Building, as well as via Zoom. Fifteen faculty members and postdocs from UC Berkeley participated in the event. Following the event, interested faculty members continued the discussion on ways to keep informed and continue the brainstorming.