Mobilizing research for contextualized innovation: scarcity and urgency as drivers during Covid-19 in the South

Judith Sutz, Cecilia Tomassini, María Schmukler and Leticia Tejera

Science and Public Policy, 2025, vol. 52, issue 5, 792-804

Abstract: Developing countries faced significant challenges during the Covid-19 pandemic, including severe difficulties in importing essential medical supplies and equipment. Domestic production of such devices, often based on blueprints requiring expensive resources, was constrained by widespread shortages. However, many Latin American and other Southern nations successfully mobilized their scientific communities to develop efficient, context-specific solutions to these challenges. This paper explores how conditions of urgency and scarcity acted as catalysts for innovative problem-solving. It examines three pandemic-related innovations in Uruguay by conducting comprehensive interviews with key stakeholders. By examining the lessons learned from these innovation processes, this paper contributes to public policy discussions on leveraging innovation capacities under scarcity and highlights pathways for collaborative responses to future health challenges. Additionally, it contributes to the ongoing literature debate on how to drive innovation—specifically, on directionality and transformative action—by advocating for context-specific, alternative technological solutions across different regions to achieve global health objectives.

Keywords: Contextualized innovation; scarcity; urgency; alternative heuristics; health innovation policy; Uruguay (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/scipol/scaf020 (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:scippl:v:52:y:2025:i:5:p:792-804.

Access Statistics for this article

Science and Public Policy is currently edited by Nicoletta Corrocher, Jeong-Dong Lee, Mireille Matt and Nicholas Vonortas

More articles in Science and Public Policy from Oxford University Press
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ().