Final call for first round of feedback: submit by Friday 18 March

The Cochrane Steering Group has announced a proposal for the transition to a new governance structure for Cochrane, including a transition from the Steering Group structure to a new Cochrane Governing Board.

This proposal arises from a review of governance that the Steering Group conducted during 2015. Key aims for the new Board include ensuring that its membership reflects Cochrane as an evolving organization and our environment; supporting the Board's role in making decisions on behalf of Cochrane as a whole; opening the membership to bring in external perspectives and valuable skills; and refreshing our electoral procedures.

The current Steering Group believes that the proposed changes will deliver improved governance for Cochrane, while ensuring that Cochrane Groups and contributors retain an active and effective voice in Cochrane's leadership and direction.

Details of the proposal

The Steering Group considered and approved the following paper at its meeting in January 2016 in Vancouver.

• Proposal for a new Cochrane Board (pdf)

Consultation and next steps

All Cochrane Groups and contributors are invited to discuss and have input into the proposed new model.

This proposal will be the subject of thorough discussion by Cochrane’s leadership groups (including the various Group Executives and the Steering Group) at the Mid-Year Meetings in London in April this year. This will include individual Group/Exec meetings as well as a combined strategic session. Ahead of these meetings, we welcome feedback from Cochrane contributors to support our discussions.

Cochrane Group Executives will be leading these discussions and collating feedback among their constituents. All contributors are invited to contribute their feedback through the Execs in this initial phase. In order to feed into the discussions at the Mid-Year Meetings, written feedback from the Execs should be submitted to Miranda Cumpston, Head of Learning and Support at the Cochrane Central Executive by Friday, 18 March

Authors and other individual contributors are also invited to submit feedback directly via this online survey by Friday, 18 March.

All feedback received by this deadline will be collated and made available to all the Execs and the Steering Group ahead of the Mid-Year Meetings. Their detailed discussion will feed into the Steering Group at the end of that week, where a refined proposal for change will be agreed.

This will not be your only chance to have input into the process. Following the Mid-Year Meetings, formal changes to Cochrane's Articles of Association and internal rules of procedure will be drafted. Wide consultation on the proposed model for change will be conducted during the year to ensure that all Cochrane's contributors understand the changes, and that the detailed procedures needed to implement the new governance structure are discussed.

The new governance proposal and changes to the Articles of Association will be proposed for a formal vote of member Groups at the Annual General Meeting at the Seoul Colloquium in October 2016.

While these discussions take place, recruitment has begun to select the new Board's first external members, nominated from outside Cochrane's key contributor groups. These appointments are in accordance with Cochrane's existing Articles of Association, and the Steering Group expects important benefits to be gained by bringing external perspective and additional experience into the group.

Timeline