text: Clinical Nutrition Research and the COVID 19 Pandemic A Scoping Review of the ASPEN COVID 19 Task Force on Nutrition Research The purpose of this scoping review by the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition ASPEN Coronavirus Disease 2019 COVID 19 Nutrition Task Force was to examine nutrition research applicable to the COVID 19 pandemic The rapid pace of emerging scientific information has prompted this activity to discover research knowledge gaps This methodology adhered with recommendations from the Joanna Briggs Institute There were 2301 citations imported Of these there were 439 articles fully abstracted with 23 main topic areas identified across 24 article types and sourced across 61 countries and 51 specialties in 8 settings and among 14 populations Epidemiological mechanistic relationships between nutrition and COVID 19 were reviewed and results mapped to the Population Intervention Comparator Outcome and Time PICO T questions The aggregated data were analyzed by clinical stage pre COVID 19 acute COVID 19 and chronic post COVID 19 Research gaps were discovered for all PICO T questions Nutrition topics meriting urgent research included food insecurity societal infrastructure and transcultural factors pre COVID 19 cardiometabolic based chronic disease pediatrics nutrition support and hospital infrastructure acute COVID 19 registered dietitian nutritionist counseling chronic post COVID 19 and malnutrition and management all stages The paucity of randomized controlled trials RCTs was particularly glaring Knowledge gaps were discovered for PICO T questions on pediatrics micronutrients bariatric surgery and transcultural factors pre COVID 19 enteral nutrition protein energy requirements and glycemic control with nutrition acute COVID 19 and home enteral and parenteral nutrition support chronic post COVID 19 In conclusion multiple critical areas for urgent nutrition research were identified particularly using RCT design to improve nutrition care for patients before during and after COVID 19 