Operation Warp Speed: Projects responding to the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic has profound socio-economic consequences. Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures, so this paper focuses on radical changes to accepted practice in project organizing in response. In particular, we focus on schedule compression to deliver outputs to mitigate the immediate impact of the pandemic on health. In the spirit of engaged scholarship, which is problem-driven rather than theory-driven, we address directly the evidence of what happened in two empirical vignettes and one more substantial case study – the CoronavirusUY app; emergency field hospitals; and vaccine development. We then suggest the implications for project management theory in discussion.

The economic challenges of new drug development

“…This research infrastructure, together with unprecedented amounts of funding, made available at short notice because of the global emergency, allowed drug discovery to occur at a phenomenal pace. To a vastly greater extent than in normal times, pharmaceutical companies were able to gamble and risk failure as governments took on liabilities by providing huge development support and committing to pre-purchasing candidate vaccines [ 3 ]. This enabled multiple large trials to be conducted in parallel [ 1 ] and trial timelines to be compressed by running the usually distinct phases I to III of clinical trials, as well as licensure processes, partly in tandem [ 3 ].…”

“…To a vastly greater extent than in normal times, pharmaceutical companies were able to gamble and risk failure as governments took on liabilities by providing huge development support and committing to pre-purchasing candidate vaccines [ 3 ]. This enabled multiple large trials to be conducted in parallel [ 1 ] and trial timelines to be compressed by running the usually distinct phases I to III of clinical trials, as well as licensure processes, partly in tandem [ 3 ]. Meanwhile, manufacturing of multiple candidates began at scale so that large stockpiles of vaccines were available immediately upon licensure to begin Phase IV and national vaccination programmes immediately [ 3 ].…”

“…This enabled multiple large trials to be conducted in parallel [ 1 ] and trial timelines to be compressed by running the usually distinct phases I to III of clinical trials, as well as licensure processes, partly in tandem [ 3 ]. Meanwhile, manufacturing of multiple candidates began at scale so that large stockpiles of vaccines were available immediately upon licensure to begin Phase IV and national vaccination programmes immediately [ 3 ]. In sum, the fast success was a combination of sustained long-term investment in research infrastructure, large sums of newly available funding, government intervention, and some good fortune that, as a coronavirus, the pandemic came from a family of viruses that was being studied [ 1 , 2 ].…”

Projecting for Sustainability Transitions: Advancing the Contribution of Peter Morris

“…In terms of project organizing, agile methodologies have evolved to deliver the software supporting this digital revolution, while the profession is entering an age of reflection as evinced by the Association for Project Management's Projecting the Future initiative: www.apm.org.uk/projecting-the-future/. Manufacturing is entering the age of Manufacturing 4.0 and the cyber-physical system (Lee et al, 2015;Tao et al, 2019) while our iconic projectmore strictly portfolio -is Operation Warp Speed, the US vaccine development initiative (Winch et al 2021).…”

Flipping the digital switch: Affective responses of STEM undergraduates to emergency remote teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…Although the emergency transition to remote teaching (ERT) event—the unplanned and rapid shift to remote education—that occurred in the wake of the 2020 novel coronavirus pandemic was not a wholly new phenomenon ( Czerniewicz et al, 2019 ; DiCarlo et al, 2007 ; Gardner et al, 2007 ; Wright and Wordsworth, 2013 ), the scale and speed of this particular transition to remote instruction remains historically unprecedented ( Winch et al, 2021 ). The near immediate global transition was, as is often said in times of abrupt change, as if ‘someone had flipped a switch.’ In an instant, students everywhere were forced to respond to rapidly evolving mandates for online education and school and university closures.…”