IMPACT STATEMENT
The paper provides an overview of the actions taken to preserve clinical research during the pandemic, some of which it would be important to maintain in the future.

INTRODUCTION
Since the beginning of SARS-COV2 outbreak in Wuhan, more than 54 million people have been infected all around the world, reaching over a million deaths (1). The rapid spread of the COVID-19 pandemic posed an unprecedented challenge for healthcare and research systems, facing the worst crisis in the last 50 years (2).
In the early phase of the pandemic outbreak, Italy was the most affected European country: the first forced to a profound re-organization of the healthcare system, to not only effectively handle the pandemic but also keep the routine patient management and care.
In this scenario, the research system had to provide scientifically useful and rapid answers, under an unprecedented media pressure.