Langley, JKayes, NMGwilt, ISnelgrove-Clarke, ESmith, SCraig, C2025-11-212025-11-2120222022-04-11Evidence & Policy, 18(2), 193-205. Policy Press. https://doi.org/10.1332/174426421X164788215152721744-26481744-2656http://hdl.handle.net/10292/20177Over the past two years, COVID has illustrated how research benefit can be accelerated when need, resources and opportunity coincide. It has also demonstrated the challenges of implementing even relatively simple evidence-based interventions, such as mask wearing and vaccines. The global pandemic response has repeatedly shown that evidence use is a complex social process determined by multiple financial, political, ethical, technological, ecological, temporal, and social factors – often in tension with each other. It has underlined the myriad influences on, and gaps between, evidence, knowledge, and action and reminds us of the need for diverse views to inform policy and practice.This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits adaptation, alteration, reproduction and distribution for non-commercial use, without further permission provided the original work is attributed. The derivative works do not need to be licensed on the same terms.http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/Other form of assessable outputOpenAccess10.1332/174426421X16478821515272