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Sociology Research

 

Capacity for diagnostic testing is one of the key issues facing policymakers in the current pandemic.

A team at the Department of Sociology, University of Cambridge, led by Dr Stuart Hogarth, has recently been awarded two grants to examine issues of testing for COVID-19.

Dr Hogarth will run a rapid survey of diagnostic manufacturers within the University of Cambridge funded project “CamCovDx – mapping the COVID-19 diagnostics industry and analysing regulatory responses to the current crisis”. CamCovDx aims at providing policymakers with comprehensive and up-to-date information about industrial capacity for the production of COVID-19 diagnostics, and at surveying and evaluating the emerging regulatory responses to the current crisis across the globe.

In addition, as co-investigators on the UKRI-funded project “Covid-19 international comparative research and rapid knowledge exchange hub on diagnostic testing systems”, led by Prof Michael Hopkins (University of Sussex), Dr Hogarth and Dr Olga Löblová will study the role of transnational actors including WHO, EU, large diagnostics companies, and charities in developing testing strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic. National responses to COVID-19 develop within systems of multi-level governance in which transnational actors such as the WHO play a critical role. How nation-states interact with transnational actors may be an important factor in determining national policy and impact on the scale of the global crisis.

Principal Investigator

Dr Stuart Hogarth

Postdoctoral Researchers

Dr Olga Löblová

Research Theme

Science and Technology

Funding

University of Cambridge COVID-19 Rapid Response Grants (CamCovDx)

UKRI Economic and Social Research Council (Covid-19 international comparative research and rapid knowledge exchange hub on diagnostic testing systems)

Project Duration

01/06/2020 - 01/12/2020

Project News

UK and US firms ‘lag’ in race to commercialise COVID-19 diagnostic tests