The Cochrane Collaboration has established a number of initiatives through which contributors can access central funding to carry out projects considered to be of benefit to the organisation. All funds are administered by the Steering Group, and particulars of each are listed below. For more information on all of these funds, please contact the Cochrane Collaboration Secretariat.
Discretionary Fund
Opportunities Fund
Prioritisation Fund
Please also see the Fellowships, scholarships and bursaries page for more funding opportunities.
Discretionary Fund
Background
Members of The Cochrane Collaboration are eligible to apply for small amounts of funds to facilitate
important activities within the organisation. Each year a maximum of £15,000 of funding is available, with a ceiling of £3000 to any one applicant. Applications will only be accepted from the person or
people responsible for a particular registered entity, and Convenors of the Steering Group’s
Advisory Groups.
Eligibility criteria
The following criteria guide the Steering Group Executive's decision as to
whether or not to approve an application:
1. Focus on ’core’ functions - The proposal should: (a) focus on core functions of
Collaboration activity, particularly the production, maintenance and dissemination of high
quality reviews, and (b) be made by a Cochrane entity. (Advisory Groups to the Steering
Group may also apply to this Fund.)
2. Gain to the Collaboration - The proposal should promise significant gain to all or part of
the Collaboration.
3. Collective benefit - The potential benefit of the proposal should not focus on a single
entity but apply across a number of entities (for example, by co-ordinating activities).
4. Likelihood of success - The proposal should have a high likelihood of meeting its aims
within the agreed budget.
5. Alternative sources of funding - The proposal should not have an obvious and readily
accessible alternative source of funding available.
6. Cost of not funding - There should be judged to be a significant loss of advantage to the Collaboration if the proposal is not funded.
7. Long-term continuity - Because discretionary funds will not be available on a recurrent
basis, there should be some plan for continuity of funding and support if this will be
necessary.
It is accepted that applications will rarely meet all these criteria; however, applicants are asked
to consider all seven criteria when applying, and to use the criteria as the paragraph headings in
their application.
Application process and timeline
- A brief application for funding should be sent to the Cochrane Collaboration
Secretariat (secretariat@cochrane.org), using the seven criteria listed above as the
paragraph headings, to ensure completeness and consistency across all
applications. The application should include details of the timeline and a description
of the deliverables. The Secretariat is responsible for forwarding applications to the
Executive of the Steering Group.
- Applications should state clearly the amount of money being requested.
- The Executive will take the final decision, requesting additional information from the
applicant(s) as necessary.
- Successful applicant(s) will be required to provide a report of a maximum of 500
words to The Cochrane Collaboration Secretariat (secretariat@cochrane.org) within
three months of spending their award. This report will be shared with the Steering
Group and might be made available to other people if judged appropriate by the
Steering Group.
- Patterns of application and expenditure will be reported to the Steering Group every
six months.
Previous recipients
A complete list of Discretionary Fund recipients is available in Section 1.5.3 of the Cochrane Policy Manual.
Opportunities Fund
Latest News
Applications were invited in December 2008 from Cochrane entities for projects that addressed any part of the Collaboration's Strategic Plan: http://www.cochrane.org/admin/stratplan.htm. The Cochrane Collaboration Steering Group announced the latest Request for Proposals (RFP) for the Cochrane Opportunities Fund and decisions were made in April 2009. The Steering Group is pleased to announce the funding of three projects:
- A Course for Cochrane Statisticians: Addressing Advances in Meta Analytical Techniques, Doug Altman, Statistical Methods Group, 16,500 GBP.
- Cochrane Training: Developing a Core Collection of Approved Training And Support Materials, Steve McDonald, Australasian Cochrane Centre, 48,997 AUD.
- Evaluation of The Cochrane Collaboration’s Risk of Bias Tool, Jonathan Sterne, Bias Methods Group, 29,354 GBP.
The successful applicants are to be congratulated on the high quality of their proposals. The Steering Group looks forward to the results of their proposed projects, and is grateful to all applicants for the time and effort they put into their applications. Should you have any questions about the Opportunities Fund (Opportunities Fund RFP), please contact Lucie Jones (ljones@cochrane.org), Project Support and Business Communications Officer, at the Cochrane Collaboration Secretariat.
Background
The Opportunities Fund provides entities with an opportunity to obtain core Collaboration funds to undertake project work of their own initiative. The Fund is organized as an annual competition applying for resources from a fixed budget. For the previous round of the Fund, an overall total of 100,000 GBP was available. There is no specified maximum per project.
Eligibility
- Proposals may only be submitted by registered entities of The Cochrane Collaboration.
- An entity may be associated with more than one proposal.
- All applications must originate from a registered Cochrane entity, and be signed by the entity leader (Co-ordinating Editor, Methods Group Convenor/Co-Convenor, Field or Network Co-ordinator, Centre Director, or equivalent).
- Joint applications for collaborative projects involving multiple entities will be particularly welcomed.
Process and timeline
This request for proposals follows an eight (8) stage process, and The Cochrane Collaboration will make good faith to follow the timescale outlined below:
i. Request For Proposals (RFP) launch date: Wednesday 17 December 2008.
ii. Closing date for submission of proposals: Monday 23 February 2009.
iii. A sub-group of the Cochrane Collaboration Steering Group (CCSG) considers the proposals. The group should have at least five (5) members, and may co-opt other people where additional knowledge or experience is required.
iv. Peer review of proposals may be organised if thought necessary.
v. Clarification and discussion with proposers, as appropriate.
vi. Consideration of recommended decisions by the CCSG.
vii. Proposers will be informed of the CCSG’s decision following its meeting in Copenhagen, April 2009.
viii. Formal contracts will be drawn up between The Cochrane Collaboration and successful applicants.
Previous awards
The following projects were successful in the 2007 round of the Opportunities Fund:
- Making Cochrane information accessible to people in Nigeria, led by Martin Meremikwu of the Nigerian branch of South African Cochrane Centre, in collaboration with the South African Cochrane Centre, the Cochrane Consumer Network (CCNet), and the Cochrane HIV/AIDS Group.
- Beyond the database search: developing inclusive global registers of studies, led by Alison Weightman of the Cochrane Information Retrieval Methods Group, in collaboration with the Cochrane Public Health Group, the Cochrane Effective Practice and Organisation of Care Group, and the Cochrane Health Equity Field.
- Approaches to estimate and present baseline risks: recommendations for Cochrane review Summary of Findings (SoF) tables, led by Jill Hayden of the Cochrane Back Group, in collaboration with the Statistical Methods Group, the Bias Methods Group, and the Prognosis Methods Group.
- Disseminating thousands of previously undiscovered trials, led by Clive Adams of the Cochrane Schizophrenia Group, in collaboration with the South Asian Cochrane Network.
- A portal to breast cancer clinical trials, led by Davina Ghersi of the Cochrane Breast Cancer Group, in collaboration with the UK Cochrane Centre, and the Australian and New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry.
The following projects were successful in the 2006 round of the Opportunities Fund:
- Developing and evaluating a plain language summary template for Cochrane Reviews, led by Claire Glenton from the Norwegian Branch of the Nordic Cochrane Centre, in collaboration with the Cochrane Musculoskeletal Group (CMSG), the Iberoamerican Cochrane Centre (IbCC), the Centro Colaborador Argentino de la Red Cochrane Iberoamericana (AICC), the Cochrane Consumers and Communication Group (CCRG), and the Cochrane Consumers Network.
- Making Cochrane Reviews more accessible to policy makers, led by John Lavis as part of the Effective Practice and Organisation of Care Group, in collaboration with the Canadian Cochrane Network and Centre.
- Managing Editor (formely Review Group Coordinator (RGC)) induction and mentoring programme, led by Jessica Thomas from the Pain, Palliative and Supportive Care Group, in collaboration with the Anaesthesia Group, the Back Group, and the Consumers and Communication Group.
- Analytical methods to guide decisions of whether, and when, to update Cochrane Reviews, led by Sally Hopewell at the UK Cochrane Centre, in collaboration with the Australasian Cochrane Centre and the Dutch Cochrane Centre (Thomas Chalmers Research Institute).
- Web-based training with Cochrane Review authors, led by Phil Wiffen at the UK Cochrane Centre, in collaboration with the University of Portsmouth.
Prioritisation Fund
Background
At a joint meeting of Centre Directors, Co-ordinating Editors and Steering Group members held in Khon Kaen, Thailand, April 2006, a strategic view was taken of the need for The Cochrane Collaboration to improve prioritisation mechanisms for key review topics, to better meet the needs of national and international stakeholders, and to meet the Collaboration’s own goals.
The Prioritisation Projects fund was created by the Cochrane Collaboration Steering Group as a one-off initiative to provide entities with these aims in mind. A total of £100,000 was made available from April 2007 with the intention that several projects would be funded.
Eligibility
-Proposals were only accepted from registered entities of The Cochrane Collaboration.
-An entity was permitted to be associated with more than one proposal.
-Joint applications for collaborative projects involving multiple entities were particularly welcomed.
Prioritisation Fund Awards
Six proposals were received and five were selected for funding:
- Delivering on priorities: developing and implementing effective collaboration between a Cochrane Review Group and a Cochrane Field, led by Rajan Madhok of the Cochrane Bone, Joint and Muscle Trauma Group.
- Using practice guidelines to determine review priorities: a pilot project, led by Kay Dickersin of the United States Cochrane Center.
- Prioritisation of Cochrane reviews for consumers and the public in low and high-income countries as a way of promoting evidence-based health care, led by Janet Wale of the Cochrane Consumer Network.
- Prioritising Cochrane review topics to reduce the know-do gap in low and middle income countries, led by Peter Tugwell of the Cochrane Health Equity Field.
- Piloting and evaluation of a patient-professional partnership approach to prioritising Cochrane reviews and other research, led by Adrian Grant of the Cochrane Incontinence Group.
The Steering Group was given an update on the progress of the funded projects at the Colloquium in Freiburg (2008) and will ensure that their outcomes are communicated at a Collaboration-wide level. There are currently no plans for a new round of the Fund.
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