Candidates with experience in digital product development, business development, or publishing are encouraged to apply

Cochrane is a diverse, global organization committed to informing healthcare decisions with the best available evidence from research. Organizationally, we are an international network of autonomously funded groups and a registered charity in the United Kingdom. Members of the Governing Board come from around the world and provide strategic leadership for the whole organization, as well as acting as Trustees of the UK charity.
 
Governing Board members work as a team, with complementary skills and backgrounds. They are a mix of elected members - who must be Cochrane Members - and appointed members, who bring an external perspective to the Board. Appointed members can be anyone with the relevant skills and experience and will not normally be Cochrane Members.
 
To replace current Board members retiring this year, we’re looking for two new appointed members with experience and expertise in one or more of the following areas:

• Digital product development
• Fundraising and business development
• Publishing and Open Access

The Board is running a separate appointments process for a new Treasurer. If you have expertise in accounting or financial management, particularly in a UK context, you should consider applying for the role of Treasurer instead. More information is available here.

This is an exciting opportunity to join the board of an internationally renowned healthcare organization as we embark on a program of substantial change in how we are organized as a global collaboration, and seek to complete our transition to become a fully Open Access source of health evidence.

Appointed members serve an initial three-year term and may be reappointed. Board membership is a voluntary, unpaid role, although expenses will be paid.
 
The deadline for applications is 15 July 2022. To find out how to stand for appointment, please visit elections.cochrane.org.

Candidates with experience in accounting and financial management are encouraged to apply

Cochrane is a diverse, global organization committed to informing healthcare decisions with the best available evidence from research. Organizationally, we are an international network of autonomously funded groups and a registered charity in the United Kingdom. Members of the Governing Board come from around the world and provide strategic leadership for the whole organization, as well as acting as Trustees of the UK charity.
 
Governing Board members work as a team, with complementary skills and backgrounds. They are a mix of elected members - who must be Cochrane Members - and appointed members, who bring an external perspective to the Board. Appointed members can be anyone with the relevant skills and experience and will not normally be Cochrane Members.

The Treasurer is a member of the Governing Board who supports their fellow Trustees to fulfil their obligation to provide financial oversight for the organization. Our current Treasurer, Karen Kelly, will step down from her position at the end of August 2023. To ensure a smooth handover and to increase the number of Board members with financial expertise, we are looking to appoint a new Board member who can act as Deputy Treasurer until August 2023, taking over as Treasurer from September 2023.

This is an exciting opportunity to join the board of an internationally renowned healthcare organization as we embark on a program of substantial change in how we are organized as a global collaboration, and seek to complete our transition to become a fully Open Access source of health evidence.

Appointed members serve an initial three-year term and may be reappointed. Board membership is a voluntary, unpaid role, although expenses will be paid.
 
The deadline for applications is 15 July 2022. To find out how to stand for appointment, please visit elections.cochrane.org.

Since the start of the year, the Governing Board and Council have each been holding monthly meetings by videoconference. These alternate between meetings with formal agendas; and ‘agenda-less’ meetings, which provide space for more informal, free-flowing discussions that can be difficult to create in virtual meetings. This month, both the Board and the Council held formal meetings.
 
Governing Board:  
The Governing Board met on 11 May. If you want to read the papers from the open access agenda pack, they’re available to download from the Board’s pages on the Cochrane Community website.
 
The key decisions taken by the Board at this meeting were:

1. Approval to support a project that aims to find out more about the challenges and blockers in the review production pipeline, and for measures to support the finalization and publication of reviews. Learn more about plans for the future of evidence synthesis on Cochrane Community.
2. In-principle approval for Cochrane UK to host the 30th anniversary Colloquium in the United Kingdom in 2023. A detailed proposal for Board approval now needs to be developed, with a financial and risk appraisal.

For questions or comments about Board agendas, please email support@cochrane.org.
 
Council:
The Council met on 16 May. Council papers are available to download from the Council’s pages on the Cochrane Community website.
 
The Council heard updates and provided constituency perspectives on the first four of its five priorities for 2022:

1. Support the operationalization of plans to restructure the organization under the future of evidence synthesis program of work and ensure the voice of Cochrane Groups is heard as this work is progressed
2. Reconsider the Council’s own role, representation, and terms of reference in light of the changes to the organizational structure
3. Deliver a set of organizational values for Governing Board approval
4. Improve Council communications to Cochrane Groups and the wider community
5. Contribute to the strategy to deliver Open Access to Cochrane Reviews whilst maintaining the financial sustainability of Cochrane Groups and the Charity

If you have an issue you’d like the Council to discuss, contact your representatives, or email support@cochrane.org.

Tracey Howe & Catherine Marshall
Co-Chairs, Governing Board

Cochrane defines knowledge translation (KT) as the process of supporting the use of health evidence from our high quality, trusted Cochrane Reviews by those who need it to make health decisions. Cochrane Hong Kong has recently launched the Knowledge Translation Awards to foster University student talent in translation and in creative dissemination of Cochrane evidence. 

Cochrane Students play a valuable role in the work Cochrane does and also helps them gain hands-on experience with health evidence and the scientific community. This award, organized by Cochrane Hong Kong, The Nethersole School of Nursing, Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, will recognize 36 students. The competition is open to all undergraduate and postgraduate students across the world. There will be two categories: 

• Knowledge translation creativity:  This award recognises undergraduate and postgraduate students who demonstrate talent in creating accessible, effective, and visually appealing works of evidence communication based on a Cochrane intervention review. 
• Evidence Translation: This award recognises undergraduate and postgraduate students who demonstrate excellence in translating Cochrane evidence into a different language with consideration of the local context of the target audience.

Call for entries is open until 31 July, 2022. Learn more about these awards and submit your entry.

We are calling for feedback to help prioritise features or challenges that are most important to you when it comes to the format of Cochrane Reviews. Please complete the survey to give us your ideas!

In February 2022, the Cochrane Governing Board approved a new model for producing Cochrane evidence syntheses, following an extensive community consultation process. There are many facets to this work, with full details via the future of evidence synthesis in Cochrane community webpages.
 
One call that echoed loud and clear during the consultation process, and in fact has been discussed for quite some years, is that Cochrane needs to evolve it’s review format to improve author experience, streamline editorial, peer review and copyediting processes, and increase accessibility and impact when published in the Cochrane Library. It is also key for ensuring Cochrane is in a strong position as we diversify our evidence synthesis types going forward.

We are therefore calling all authors, editors, methodologists, consumers, users - everyone!  - to understand what will make Cochrane Reviews more attractive to you.
 
A recent webinar, the first in a series on the future of evidence synthesis in Cochrane, included early details about implementation planning and projects, including the new review format. The slides and recording are available on the Future Cochrane webinar series webpage.

Research to inform the new review format is underway. Interviews with stakeholders have been completed to collect themes, topics and initial ideas. These have been built into a survey, which will inform the recommendations and implementation. 

We need you!
We want to ensure a new format prioritises features or overcomes challenges that are most important to you. If you are - or are interested in becoming - an author, editor or user of Cochrane Reviews, please complete the survey by 13 June (takes approximately 15 minutes).
 

COMPLETE SURVEY HERE

Cochrane’s new production model represents a large shift for the organization. We’d like to thank everyone for their valuable contributions to the development of the new model and patience during these early implementation planning stages.

Here are the ways to stay up to date and ask questions:

• Access detailed information about the new model
• Join the Future Cochrane webinar series It features a series of presenters sharing all the latest on implementation, innovation and community engagement. Each session will be available to view online afterward and you can submit your questions beforehand. 
• Read the FAQs Explore answers to common questions.
• Ask your questions Any questions or concerns from anyone in the community are welcome. We will use these to inform our FAQs and future webinars.
   

Dear Friends and Colleagues

Due to the continued global impact of COVID-19 (coronavirus) with ongoing reduced/restricted travel from many regions, and the advent of geo-political instability and risks in the European region, we have taken the decision to postpone the Global Evidence Summit (GES 2), due to be hosted in Prague between 2 – 6 October 2023.

The Global Organising Committee (comprising four partners:  Cochrane, JBI, GIN and Campbell) concluded, with the agreement of our local host - CEBHC-KT and Masaryk University, that the most appropriate decision is to postpone the Summit until 9 – 13 September 2024. As global leaders in evidence-informed healthcare, the partners take very seriously our responsibility and duty of care to our communities in the face of continuing risks.

However, we are committed to working together, along with additional organizations, to present the third Annual World EBHC Day on 20 October, 2022. This is a global initiative that raises awareness of the need for better evidence to inform healthcare policy, practice and decision making to improve health outcomes globally.

This second postponement of the second Global Evidence Summit is disappointing news for all of us and we would like to thank the vast number of people, including our local hosts, who have been working hard on preparations over the past year. We are in no doubt that we will be able to build successfully on the work accomplished so far to ensure that when GES 2 does go ahead in September 2024 in Prague it will be everything we anticipated: a world-class scientific event and a memorable gathering of the evidence-based healthcare community. 

We thank you for your ongoing support and commitment to the Global Evidence Summit and will look forward to meeting again for this unique event in 2024. 

Recent developments have shown the world can be volatile and unpredictable, requiring us to remain vigilant and responsive – collaborations such as this are even more important.   We hope that you all remain safe and well during these extraordinary times. 

Miloslav Klugar
Director, CEBHC-KT (Czech Cochrane, JBI and GRADE centres), Chair of the GES Scientific Committee

Judith Brodie
Interim CEO, Cochrane

Zoe Jordan
Executive Director, JBI

Elaine Harrow
CEO, Guidelines International Network

Vivian Welch,
Interim CEO, The Campbell Collaboration

The Cochrane Board will now be considering the opportunity to host a Cochrane event in 2023 in place of the deferred Global Evidence Summit and we will provide more information on this as soon as possible.

If you have any questions, please contact support@cochrane.org.

Cochrane wants to welcome people, no matter who they are or where they live. The more varied perspectives we have, the better we can provide evidence to help inform health and healthcare decisions.

In October 2021, we launched our listening and learning exercise that aimed to gather data, views and experiences regarding diversity and inclusion in Cochrane. Between October and January we heard from over 1,300 people and we are pleased to publish the findings in this new report.

We encourage everyone to read this report and we have made a summary of the report available in multiple languages to increase accessibility.

Thank you to everyone who contributed to this important process. It is clear that we can do a lot more to be a diverse and inclusive organisation, so the important work starts now as we take action in response to these findings.

Click here to read the report: https://www.cochrane.org/about-us/cochrane-diversity-and-inclusion

Chris Champion
Head of Engagement, Learning and Support

CoI Policy for Cochrane Groups updated to align better with Cochrane Library COI policy 

Cochrane maintains its reputation for independence and credibility through the core values of transparency and research integrity which include, among other things, minimizing the effects that conflicts of interest could have on our research and our organization. We do this by adhering to rigorous policies about conflicts of interest. In 2020, a revised conflict of interest policy for Cochrane Library content was introduced that strengthened the previous policy in several ways and restructured it to make it easier to follow.

The Governing Board has now approved an update to 2014 Conflict of Interest Policy for Cochrane Groups to bring it in line with the 2020 Conflict of Interest Policy for Cochrane Library Content, setting out the rule that:

Geographic Groups, Fields, and Methods Groups are not permitted to accept funds from commercial sponsors or commercial sources that have a financial interest in the topic areas covered by the Cochrane Library.

The Board has also asked the Central Executive Team to start work on an ethical policy relevant to fundraising and investment, alongside a more comprehensive review of allowed conflicts of interest for activities, people, Cochrane Groups and Committees, not covered under 2020 Conflict of Interest Policy for Cochrane Library Content, to ensure alignment. This work will begin at the end of 2022.

• Read 'Conflict of Interest Policy for Cochrane Groups'
• More information on Cochrane’s Conflict of Interest policies

We’re pleased to welcome two new representatives to the Council from the beginning of April:

Cinzia Del Giovane, representing Methods Groups

Cinzia is a Senior Researcher at the Statistics Unit, Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences for Children and Adults, University-Hospital of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy.  She is a statistical advisor for Cochrane Italy and member of the Cochrane Statistics Methods Group.

Cinzia joins Silvia Minozzi as a Methods Group representative, replacing Sarah Nevitt, who has recently stepped down to start maternity leave.

Valerie Wells, representing Information Specialists

Valerie is a research associate and information scientist based at the Social and Public Health Sciences Unit at the University of Glasgow, Scotland. She is an Information Specialist for the Cochrane Public Health Group.

Valerie joins Rene Spijker as an Information Specialists representative, replacing Maria-Inti Metzendorf, who has recently stepped down.

Liz Dooley has also been re-appointed by the Managing Editors Executive for another term, serving alongside Gail Quinn. Congratulations to Cinzia, Valerie and Liz; and thanks to Sarah Nevitt and Maria-Inti Metzendorf for their service to the Council.

Find out more about the Council on Cochrane Community. The Council is a representative body and values input from the community. Any Cochrane member can propose items for discussion at Council meetings. To contact the Council about an issue you would like to see discussed, please see contact details for your representative, or contact the Council directly.