The COVID-19 pandemic has ushered in a new era of clinical research by revealing what can be achieved in weeks or months and how drug development can be accelerated. Master trial protocols allow simultaneous study of multiple therapies. Decentralized clinical trials (CTs) allow patients to take part from home. Clinical trial operations are using more telemedicine and remote monitoring to ease interactions between researchers and study subjects. Regulatory flexibility for product sponsors and innovative CT designs can pave the way for using these models in new therapeutic areas. Panelists will propose likely lasting changes to the clinical research landscape as a result of COVID-19. They will also identify innovations that are at risk of being abandoned but should be preserved in a post-COVID environment. Importantly, they will indicate structural weaknesses that the COVID-19 epidemic has exposed in the clinical research model and that could benefit from renewed innovation and thinking.