Cafes and restaurants open takeaway counters, retailers an online shop, and carnival-goers do it with Lego. How do researchers deal with the restrictions imposed as a result of the pandemic? In the European HERA research programme Public Spaces: Culture and Integration in Europe, disappointment is the dominant emotion. But interviews which the Dutch Research Council has conducted with the project leaders reveal that new initiatives, subjects and relationships are blossoming too. Among the interviewees is Christian Noack, the leader of the European Spa project.