ISTP News

Antoinette van der Merwe and Yael Borofsky wrote an op-ed for the South African newspaper Mail & Guardian on the lockdown in the country.

Optimised on-​farm grain storage boosts food security in sub-​Saharan Africa, as an ETH study in Kenya during the COVID-​19 pandemic shows. (Re-Post from ETH News)

The global COVID-19 pandemic is manifesting differently in every country. The new video of our "ISTP4Public" series sheds light on how the urban poor mitigated their risk of infection in Accra and Johannesburg at the onset of the COVID-19 outbreak. Researchers Antoinette van der Merwe from the Swiss Minerals Observatory and Kathrin Durizzo from the Development Economics Group talk about their research's main findings and the policy implications.

The Swiss Radio and Television (SRF) recently reported on MOBIS: COVID-​19 research project, an initiative of ETH Zurich and the University of Basel with the aim of getting a picture of how the pandemic crisis is affecting mobility in Switzerland. The main findings indicate that the population has shifted away from space-efficient large vehicles, such as busses, in light of COVID-19 restrictions. However, car travel and walking have fully recovered in the post-lockdown era.

(Re-​post from ETH News) With the number of coronavirus cases growing rapidly, ETH Zurich sees no choice but to extensively restrict classroom teaching starting on 2 November. The ETH community will receive detailed information over the course of this week.

(Re-​post from ETH Zurich Services & resources Internal news) In view of the rapid increase in the rate of COVID-​19 infections, the Executive Board has responded to advice from the ETH COVID task force by tightening the measures for combating the spread of the virus at ETH Zurich. The facemask mandate will be extended further, drinks receptions and other social events are generally no longer allowed and working from home will once again become the preferred option.

COVID-19 has already challenged many countries, causing concern about what will happen in African countries. To understand how the urban poor mitigate their risk of infection, ISTP PhD student Antoinette van der Merwe together with researchers from the University of Ghana and the University of Pretoria conducted a survey with 1,400 poor households in Accra and Johannesburg. They concluded that a costly shutdown of public life is only effective with a well-informed population.

During the lockdown, doctoral candidate at the ISTP, Antoinette van der Merwe, was stuck in South Africa. While she was there, she started a new research project to find out how poor families are coping with the current corona crisis. In her interview, Antoinette describes her own experience and provides us with insights into the impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on poor urban neighbourhoods. (Re-post from ETH Zurich Services & resources News)

The MOBIS: COVID-19 research project, an initiative of ETH Zurich and the University of Basel, is a continuation of the original MOBIS study. The aim of the project is to get a picture of how the crisis is affecting mobility and everyday life in Switzerland. The latest weekly report presenting post-lockdown results as of July 13^th is now available and the analysis will be extended in the coming weeks.

Radio SRF 1, the Swiss national radio station, reported about an ISTP research project, which shows that not only urban residents in poorer regions of the world suffer from the Corona crisis.

In shaking our society to its core Covid-​19 shows that we must adopt a far broader perspective to tackle the complex socio-​ecological problems humanity faces, says Jaboury Ghazoul, associate members of ISTP. (Re-​post from ETH Zukunftsblog)

What does the COVID-19 crisis imply for the energy transition required to keep global warming at bay? A commentary written by Bjarne Steffen, Florian Egli, Michael Pahle and ETH Prof. Tobias Schmidt aims to help energy policymakers navigate through the crisis. In their view, structuring the challenges that arise in different time horizons and offering guiding principles for responses are most useful at this stage.

ETH4D Research Challenges aim to develop effective solutions for poverty reduction combining technologies, policies and a profound understanding of human behaviour. The research questions for this special call focus on mitigating the negative impact of a pandemic/epidemic on people’s health or livelihoods living on the African continent.

To slow down the spread of the Coronavirus, the population has been instructed to stay at home. This measure consequently has a major impact on our daily mobility behaviour. But who is being affected, and how? The MOBIS : COVID-19 research project is a continuation of the original MOBIS study. The aim of the project is to get a picture of how the crisis is affecting mobility and everyday life in Switzerland. The first results are now available, and the analysis will be extended in the coming weeks.

The world’s brightest minds collaborate in a 48h online hackathon to fight the COVID-19 crisis. This is an initiative under the patronage of the Swiss Federal Department of Home Affairs (FDHA) that aims to develop daring and innovative ideas for successfully facing the challenges posed by the Coronavirus.