UEA to research pandemic's impact on volunteering
It's hoped the findings will help see how volunteers can help in the UK's recovery.
The project involving University of Essex, Northumbria University, University of Kent, University of Stirling and Abersytwyth University will see academics comparing the voluntary sector's response in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
Its being funded by almost £420,000 from the Economic and Social Research Council following calls for projects to analyse the impact of Covid-19.
It will look at what worked well and hopefully shape planning for future crises.
Dr Jurgen Grotz, Director of the Institute for Volunteering at UEA, said: "The pandemic has not only disrupted all our individual lives but also long standing relationships and understandings between voluntary action and governments at their various levels.
"This project will help us to understand a newly emerging landscape and to support a collective effort of national healing."
Dr Ewen Speed, from the University of Essex, said: "This project presents a unique opportunity to assess differences across the UK in how the different governments were able to respond to the COVID-19 crisis.
"My role will involve assessing the different policy frames across England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, and how this impacted upon the types of response that these different areas were able to mobilise."
Examining how each of the four nations prepared before the pandemic hit will be the focus of the first phase of the project, and what role voluntary action played in the process.
It will then look into how coronavirus impacted volunteering overall, from the pausing of face-to-face activities to delivering projects in new Covid-safe ways.
Recommendations will then be made on the role volunteering and voluntary organisations could play in the UK's recovery from the pandemic.
Results of the research project will be presented in a series of government briefings across the four nations.