Financial monitoring of Cochrane Groups takes place annually. Monitoring is not an audit of Groups’ accounts, but a data-gathering exercise that builds a picture of Cochrane’s ‘financial health’ year on year. It enables the Central Executive to provide information to the public about who funds Cochrane, the collective monetary cost of the organization’s work, and the number of people involved in group activities. It supports the preparation of statistics about Groups in order to benchmark operations and identify best practice. And it also identifies whether groups are operating sustainably, highlighting any actual or potential resource issues. This is the kind of fundamental information that the Steering Group needs in order to make strategic decisions about how to allocate core funding annually, and will be particularly important as we seek a better understanding of the feasibility and timelines for making structural changes to Cochrane Groups.

The 2016 financial monitoring of Cochrane Groups is taking place from Tuesday 14^th June to Friday 8^th July 2016. All registered Cochrane Groups should complete the financial monitoring form for their last complete financial year. This includes registered Branches and satellites of Groups. More information and a link to the reporting survey is available here.

A summary of the data will be publically available by the Seoul Colloquium in October. Specific details about Groups will remain confidential.

Dear colleagues,

I am delighted to announce the appointment of Gert van Valkenhoef as Cochrane’s IT Development Manager in the Informatics and Knowledge Management Department (IKMD).

Gert has an extensive research background in evidence based medicine, focussing on the development of software to enable new ways of working with evidence. He has a PhD from the University of Groningen thanks to his work on the ADDIS decision support system. He then continued that work as a post-doc researcher at the University Medical Center Groningen.

ADDIS is a proof of concept system that combines a study-oriented repository of trials with network meta-analysis and decision analysis models to inform benefit/risk decisions. Gert's work included methodological contributions in meta-analysis and decision analysis, the development of several R packages, and leading the software development team that built ADDIS.

Gert also provided statistical advice on several systematic reviews, and was a visiting scholar at Brown University and ClinicalTrials.gov.

Gert is excited to be able to combine his passions for software development and evidence based medicine at Cochrane.

He joins IKMD this week, and is currently based in Groningen in the Netherlands with plans to relocate to Copenhagen later this year/early 2017. He will lead Cochrane’s software development and technical architecture in support of our organisational and business aims.

I am sure you will join me in welcoming Gert to the Central Executive Team. His Cochrane email address is gvanvalkenhoef@cochrane.org. 

Best regards,

Chris Mavergames
Head of Informatics & Knowledge Management
Cochrane Central Executive 

Cochrane is joining together with four other leading organizations working in the production and dissemination of evidence for decision making in the global health, social, and economic policy and practice sectors to host the first Global Evidence Summit.

Working in partnership with the Guidelines International Network, The Campbell Collaboration, the International Society for Evidence-based Health Care, and the Joanna Briggs Institute, Cochrane will help to organize and hold the Global Evidence Summit (GES) in Cape Town, South Africa from 12-16 September 2017.

The theme of the GES will be ‘Using Evidence. Improving Lives’, and the event will highlight and promote evidence-informed approaches to health policy and development, with a special focus on the opportunities and challenges facing low- and middle-income countries. Our colleagues at Cochrane South Africa will host this landmark event, which is expected to bring up to 2000 delegates to Cape Town from across the evidence community. For more information, please read the full official announcement.

To keep up to date with plans for the GES, please visit the event website and follow on Twitter: @GESummit and #GESummit17. Registration is scheduled to open in late 2016, and regular updates will be available as event planning continues.

In April 2016 the University of Melbourne launched the Elizabeth Waters Memorial Travel Scholarship in memory of our Cochrane colleague Liz Waters who sadly passed away in September 2015. 

Liz made a lasting contribution to the field of public health both nationally and internationally, fuelled by her passion and commitment to justice, equity and upholding the rights of children. She was an outstanding researcher, advocate, and leader who made an exceptional contribution to child public health through her work with Cochrane Public Health, the University of Melbourne, The Royal Children's Hospital, and as the inaugural Jack Brockhoff Chair of Child Public Health and Director of The Jack Brockhoff Child Health and Wellbeing Program and Public Health Insight. 

The Elizabeth Waters Memorial Travel Scholarship will honour two of Liz’s great passions: excellence in child public health and travel. Funds raised will enable the University to provide scholarships to staff, higher degree candidates, partners and collaborators in The Jack Brockhoff Child Health and Wellbeing Program and the research service, Public Health Insight (or such other programs focused on child public health research) at the University of Melbourne, who demonstrate excellence in their field of work.

The scholarship(s) will assist the successful applicants with expenses associated with attending a domestic or international conference, event or opportunity. The scholarship(s) will also be available to international applicants travelling to Australia to collaborate with the Program and/or Insight. 

We invite you to support the next generation of researchers in child public health by donating to this scholarship fund. For more information on Professor Waters and this scholarship please visit this page. You can also add to the online memory book where you can record your condolences and memories of Liz for the community and her family.

We’re delighted to share the news of the official launch of the Brazilian Cochrane Network, Cochrane’s first-ever national Network. The Network will be co-ordinated and led by the Cochrane Brazil team in São Paulo, providing methodological support, mentoring, and supervision to five new Affiliates located in regional centres across Brazil.

Cochrane Brazil celebrates its 20^th anniversary in 2016 and has produced more than 300 Cochrane Reviews for Brazil’s Ministry of Health. Some of these experienced author teams will now lead Affiliate activity to promote the production, dissemination, and use of Cochrane evidence nationwide.

Please join us in congratulating our colleagues in Brazil on this new initiative, and wishing them every success in building the Brazilian Cochrane Network.

Read the full press release on cochrane.org

For more information on the work of Cochrane Brazil and the Network, please visit the Cochrane Brazil website.

The Cochrane Consumer Network (CCNet) is made up of people committed to the importance of consumer participation in informed healthcare decision-making processes, and our members have a key role in the production of healthcare evidence. The network of consumer contributors is a fundamental part of Cochrane, and contributes at every level to the goals identified in Cochrane’s Strategy to 2020.

Members of the CCNet Consumers’ Executive (CE) are responsible for the implementation of the CCNet remit ‘to support consumers contributing effectively to Cochrane and to help to explain the role of Cochrane and of evidence in health care to consumers and their representatives globally’.

The CE comprises five elected members of CCNet, with the Consumer Co-ordinator serving as the sixth, non-voting, member. For the 2016 election there are two vacancies, and we are seeking a minimum of one representative from a low- or middle-income country.

Nominations should be sent by email to the Consumer Co-ordinator, Richard Morley, by Friday 11 June 2016, 23:59 UTC.

For more information on the CE nomination and election process, please download the complete election process document. For more information on the work of CCNet, please visit our website.

Health Evidence™ has a new look! The healthevidence.org online repository of 4,600+ quality-rated public health relevant reviews (including 700+ Cochrane Reviews) has implemented website updates to improve the user experience. Enhanced features include a responsive design, which enables easy searching by desktop or mobile, and removal of the user login. Now you can search on the go – by phone or tablet, without needing to remember your password. Registered users may continue to login to benefit from the additional search features linked to your profile, including the ability to save searches and export results, save or email articles, and enable our monthly tailored evidence service.

Since launching Health Evidence^TM in 2005, we continue to seek feedback from public health professionals at all decision making levels in all provinces and territories in Canada, and to integrate your suggestions, to best meet your needs. We have strived to ensure that Health Evidence^TM delivers high-quality needed products to the public health community in Canada, and I look forward to hearing your feedback on our latest updates.

Our look has changed, still our commitment to helping public health use best evidence in practice remains.

Sincerely, 
Maureen Dobbins, Scientific Director, Health Evidence

Check out the new site www.healthevidence.org! Contact us with questions or feedback, we would love to hear from you: info@healthevidence.org.

The 15th Annual Meeting of the Iberoamerican Cochrane Network will be held in Quito, Ecuador 13-15 June. The Meeting, organized by the Ecuadorian Collaborative Centre of the Iberoamerican Cochrane Network, will be held at the Universidad Tecnológica Equinoccial and will also include a pre-symposium conference will be held on 11 and 12 June. For complete information, please visit the event website.

Final call: submissions due Friday 20 May 23:59 BST

Cochrane’s Board of Trustees agreed to the setup of a Scientific Committee for the purpose of providing independent authoritative guidance for the methods Cochrane should use in its reviews.

A selection panel will identify the first committee members. We seek representation from Co-ordinating Editors (one member of the Executive and one wider Board member), Methods Convenors (one member of the Executive and one wider Board member), also one representative from the other Cochrane groups: Fields, Centres and Consumers, and one representative of the ME and Information Specialist community on this panel. The full panel will comprise: David Tovey (Editor in Chief), current Cochrane Board representative Holger Schünemann and an independent representative, along with the 6 internal group members.

This is a time limited panel to agree a call for Scientific Committee nominations and to consider actively approaching specific individuals outside Cochrane (by invitation) to produce a balanced and well-functioning committee.

Deadline for nominations to the panel: 20th May. The Co-Eds and Methods Executive should each nominate one member, and the other Executives are also invited to nominate an individual for consideration. For the representatives of the Methods and Co-Eds Board, individuals are invited to nominate themselves or colleagues (with prior consent). For each application, candidates should provide a short summary (less than 500 words) of their relevant expertise and experience to assist them in making the independent and impartial judgements required, along with basic information on languages spoken and geographical location. 

David Tovey and Holger Schünemann will make the final selections from the individuals who put themselves forward, bearing in mind the need for broad expertise, and also geographical, linguistic and gender diversity. 

Please submit your nominations to Jackie Chandler jchandler@cochrane.org by the deadline *Friday 20^th May 23:59 BST*

The British Council's Newton Fund is inviting proposals for Researcher Links Travel Grants for travel between the UK and Colombia, Egypt, Indonesia, or Turkey.

Researcher Links Travel Grants provide financial support for early-career researchers to undertake an international research placement to strengthen links for future collaboration, build research capacity in developing economies, and enhance the researcher's career opportunities.

Researchers that reside in the UK can apply for funding to visit a university or research institution in Colombia, Egypt, Indonesia, or Turkey.  Those residing in Colombia, Egypt, Indonesia, or Turkey can apply for funding to come to the UK. 

All Newton Researcher Links Travel Grants have the following three overarching objectives:

• Support international development-relevant research – Travel Grants are intended to support research areas relevant to the economic development and social welfare of partner countries.
• Contribute to capacity building of early career researchers – The proposal should include a description of the capacity building potential of the project (both for the individual applicant, and other potential beneficiaries), and the longer term impact that the project could achieve.
• Establish new research links or develop existing links – Travel Grants are intended to either support new links, or to develop existing links with the potential for longer term sustainability. Applications to return to the research group where the applicant carried out their PhD research or have previously taught will only be considered if they clearly demonstrate the latter.

For additional detail on the call and to apply, please see http://www.britishcouncil.org/education/science/researcher-links

Deadline for receipt of applications: 27 June 2016