Even though COVID-19 primarily needs a medical response, there is also a need for other responses towards the growing crisis, and RESILIENCE could be one of these responses.
These days many of the partners of RESILIENCE are themselves experiencing how COVID-19 has an effect on academic work within the field of religious studies.
The past days have seen multiple governments limiting access to libraries and universities. Many European citizens are now confined to their homes, and from there, they are now expected to carry out their work to the best of their abilities.
But how do you carry on working, when your access to resources is limited?
This question in itself does an excellent job of showing one of the ways in which the European society needs RESILIENCE.
RESILIENCE will serve as a research infrastructure for all religious studies and will provide digital access to a wide range of resources and experts. For this reason, a research infrastructure such as RESILIENCE would have proved to be a helping hand to all of those performing research within religious studies during this crisis.
But it is not only the partners of RESILIENCE or researchers within religious studies, who would benefit from a research infrastructure on religious studies in this time of crisis. The governments themselves could also benefit from a research infrastructure such as RESILIENCE.
On March 12, the Vatican decided to close all catholic churches in Rome in order to help stem the spread of the virus and across Europe governments has advised religious communities of different faiths to follow suit in response to COVID-19.
When governments and decision makers need to take such measures, they need highly qualified information from researchers on religion, in order to make decisions and properly interact with, and coordinate efforts between, a wide range of religious communities. And this is exactly what a future research infrastructure on religious studies will be able to provide.
Do you want to know more about the need for a research infrastructure on religious studies?