In the spring of 2020, under the influence of the COVID-19 crisis and the first lockdown in Austria, a transatlantic group of researchers formed to discuss the current societal challenges posed by the pandemic. The core of the original 'COVID Group' was formed by a network of the University of Continuing Education Krems, the Medical University of Vienna, the Arizona State University in Santa Fe, the Santa Fe Institute, the World Climate Forum and Harvard University.
In response to the events, the group of European and US researchers established a contemporary format by organising weekly virtual meetings to discuss joint publications, research projects, new developments in research and current events, and to coordinate joint activities.
What was originally conceived as a loose collaborative platform for joint work on priority issues has evolved into a permanent organisation. The original group was expanded to include experts from the fields of transdisciplinarity, mineral resources (TU Bergakademie Freiberg) and social evolution (Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research), and redefined itself as a permanent cooperation platform at the beginning of 2021 as the "Transatlantic Research Lab on Complex Challenges".