Since it was established at the end of March, the CERN against COVID-19 task force has received literally hundreds of ideas ranging from the highly technical to those impacting more on public health policy. The ideas fall into three main categories, Medical devices like the HEV ventilator, IT initiatives, like Zenodo or contributions to folding@home, and Help to society, like the production of PPEs.

Some of the ideas suggested go beyond the remit of the task force. Public policy issues such as approaches to lifting lockdowns are, for example, beyond the scope of the task force. Through the task force, CERN strives to deploy its know-how and technologies to help solve the challenges arising in the local and global fight against COVID-19. As a particle physics research organisation, CERN is not in a position to advise on medical research, health or health policy issues. Nevertheless, when people submit such ideas, the task force endeavours to point them in the direction of places they might help. The task force also maintains a page of links (https://againstcovid19.cern/cern-community-ways-get-involved) for the CERN community of ways to get involved (sign-on is required).

The task force is grateful for all the ideas received, and welcomes new suggestions through the webpage: https://againstcovid19.cern/actions.

For more information, visit againstcovid19.cern and tune into the CERN against COVID-19 seminar on 20 May at 16:00: https://indico.cern.ch/event/916953/.