By the time the World Health Organisation declared pandemic status for COVID-19 on 11th March 2020 we were already seeing chaos in the transport systems within low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Transport systems collapsed, leaving people unable to access vital services and slowing all movement of goods.

We set out urgently to gather and disseminate critical evidence on what appeared to work and what didn’t to keep people and economies moving, and to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.

Our portfolio of 20 research projects form our COVID-19 Response and Recovery Transport Research, summarised in our compendium. We concluded that there is an urgent need to develop transport systems that make transport less fragile and more resilient to future pandemics.

Our research is one example of making sure lessons are learned from crises and ensuring infrastructures stand up to the next emergency.