A planning committee of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine will organize a series of short, virtual workshops to consider what can be learned from collaboration, innovation, and adaptation to the COVID-19 crisis across research institutions, and how these lessons might be applied to strengthen the research enterprise against future crises. The workshops will explore how institutions have broken down barriers to accelerating research and collaboration in response to COVID-19, and how government, universities, and industry can sustain the culture of collaboration across sectors and disciplines stimulated by the crisis. Topics for exploration during the workshops include the growth of crisis-driven collaborations between universities and industry; the impacts of adaptive federal funding and regulation to support COVID-19-related research; considerations for informing future emergency planning efforts and networks; and lessons for addressing intersectional inequities during crisis. The virtual workshops are meant to catalyze high-level policy discussions and to stimulate further dialogue on opportunities and challenges for cross-sector collaboration. A rapporteur-authored proceedings in brief will be published encompassing all workshops in the series.