The role universities play in advancing COVID-specific knowledge and long-term management of this global crisis is largely unknown. In this comparative perspective study, we document the ways in which members from universities in the US, New Zealand, Italy, South Korea, and China engage in activities to respond to the pandemic. We frame this study with consortium-style emergency management and continuity planning (Friedman et al., 2014; Mann, 2007) and apply the sensemaking knowledge management framework (Choo, 1998) to identify strategies that university members employ to generate new scientific knowledge on COVID-19. Our findings reveal that response to the pandemic varies by university stratification, specifically by size and research capacity. At the time of this study, we identified three distinct lenses by which university members position their leadership and research on COVID. Universities from China utilized a post-pandemic approach. Whereas universities in the US, Italy, New Zealand, and South Korea approach their COVID research activities using an evolving-pandemic anticipatory lens and focus on Synergistic Knowledge Production (SKP) on current and future pandemics by engaging in a range of collaborative and interdisciplinary research activities with members of regional universities. Findings also provide policy implications for university-led responses to global health challenges. [Note: The page range (146-160) shown on the PDF is incorrect. The correct page range is 146-161.]