The Governing Board is meeting in Manchester on 17, 18 and 19 March 2025.
Strategic planning
On the first day of the meeting, the Board will focus on the future of evidence synthesis and how we respond to a changing external landscape. There is a growing demand for timely, affordable, and policy-relevant evidence that informs decision-making. Advancements in AI and data-sharing technologies present benefits as well as challenges and we need to do more to co-produce evidence and address inequality.
Financial sustainability
Day two will focus on how we use our resources in order to have maximum impact. For the past few years we have been operating with a deficit budget so, spending more than we generate. This was an active decision made by the Board several years ago, to use strategic reserves to fund investment in changing the way we edit and publish evidence and manage an organization that relies on a diverse, highly skilled community of volunteer researchers.
The Board will continue discussion around how we return to a balanced budget within the next five years. Product development, fundraising and working in partnership with others will all be discussed in a session on income diversification.
Regular reporting
At each Governing Board meeting, the Chief Executive Officer presents a report which covers operational activity across Cochrane and the progress we are making with implementing the Organizational Strategy. The Editor in Chief will report on editorial matters, the pipeline of proposals, protocols and reviews and the Scientific Strategy.
The latest financial results, a risk report and an update on the audit which started in January will all be reviewed.
Open Access and Publisher’s Report
Colleagues from Wiley will join the Board and present the Cochrane Library Performance Dashboards for 2024. Progress with the pathway to making our evidence accessible, transparent and useful to as many people as possible (Our open access strategy) will be discussed too.
Approval of policies
A draft Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (Belonging) policy will be reviewed and a Managing Conflicts of Interest Policy for the Board (in addition to the policy for groups link) will be considered.
Reports from Committees
The Finance Audit and Risk Committee, Governance and Nominations Committee and Product Development Committee all met during February and March and the Board will receive reports from each Committee on the areas covered by their delegated authority.
The Governing Board will meet again (virtually) in June 2025.
An update will be shared after the meeting. Do let us know if you have any questions or want any more information - governingboardsecretary@cochrane.org.