3.3 Centres

Cochrane Centres and their respective Branches act as a regional focus for the activities of The Cochrane Collaboration. Their primary role is to support contributors to The Cochrane Collaboration within a defined geographical or linguistic area.

The core functions of Cochrane Centres are:

1.  To promote and represent The Cochrane Collaboration.
2.  To serve as a source of information about The Cochrane Collaboration.
3. To provide or facilitate training and support for review authors, editors, handsearchers and other contributors to The Cochrane Collaboration.
4. To support regional editorial bases of Review Groups, Methods Groups and Fields by:
   • assisting in finding funding;
   • mediating conflicts, either between Cochrane entities or between individuals and entities.
5. To contribute to improving the quality of Cochrane reviews by performing, supporting or promoting methodological research.
6. To promote accessibility to The Cochrane Library to healthcare professionals, patients and others, e.g. by pursuing national subscriptions and translations where necessary.
7. To handsearch general healthcare journals in the linguistic area of the Centre and to submit the search results to the Collaboration’s trial database.

In fulfilling these core functions, Centres are required to:

• ensure effective and efficient communication and mediation between Centre members and members of other entities for which the Centre is a reference centre;
• maintain their details in the Cochrane contact database;
• maintain a description of the Centre’s activities in The Cochrane Library (Centre module) at least on an annual basis;
• ensure sustainability and continuity of the Centre’s programme of work;
• produce a strategic/business plan with targets and an annual report, which reports progress against these targets.

In addition, the Cochrane Centres may perform optional special functions on behalf of the Collaboration, such as development of software for use within the Collaboration or production of Cochrane News. Organising or hosting the annual Colloquium is another important optional function of Centres.

There are currently fourteen Cochrane Centres:

• Australasian Cochrane Centre
• Brazilian Cochrane Centre
• Canadian Cochrane Centre
• Chinese Cochrane Centre
• Dutch Cochrane Centre
• French Cochrane Centre
• German Cochrane Centre
• Iberoamerican Cochrane Centre
• Italian Cochrane Centre
• Nordic Cochrane Centre
• South African Cochrane Centre
• South Asian Cochrane Centre
• UK Cochrane Centre       
• US Cochrane Center

Both Centre Staff and Centre Directors meet together annually at Cochrane Colloquia and as needed on other occasions during the year, and are in regular contact through electronic communication. Cochrane Centre and Branch Directors also meet at the time of the Steering Group meetings mid-way between Colloquia.

Centres are required to report on their activities every two years to the Monitoring and Registration Committee, and to provide financial information every year. 

Cochrane Centres are responsible for providing their own funding. Most of the Centres receive infrastructure support from national governments or similar agencies, supplemented by additional project related funds for undertaking specific tasks. Centres usually have small staff who collectively have skills in systematic review methodology, training, research, computing, and administration. Depending on the focus of a Centre’s work, other skills may also be present. Whilst most Centres have some full-time staff, many rely heavily on part-time staff who have other commitments. Most Centres have advisory boards that provide advice and support about the strategic direction for activities within the Centre.

All countries have a reference Cochrane Centre. Sometimes a group of people in a country or geographical area may want to establish a formal relationship with The Cochrane Collaboration in order to promote evidence-based health care or to facilitate the production of Cochrane reviews. This can be done either by establishing an informal affiliation with the Centre, or by becoming an official Branch of the Centre. The registration of a Branch does not have to follow the Collaboration’s registration process, but the approval of the Monitoring and Registration Committee is needed, based on letters of support from the reference Centre and other Cochrane entities in the region, a structure, workplan, communications strategy and curriculum vitae of the person leading the Branch (see Appendix 2). The activities of Branches are reported every two years in the monitoring report of the reference Centre, and financial information is reported every year. For a list of existing Branches, see http://www.cochrane.org/contact/centres. The Monitoring and Registration Committee will approve the establishment of a Branch, but the Branch does not become a ‘registered entity’ of The Cochrane Collaboration. Its official status is as a Branch of the reference Cochrane Centre, and it is the reference Cochrane Centre which is the ‘registered entity’ of The Cochrane Collaboration.

An established and financially secure Branch may later wish to become an independent Centre. At that point, and with the support of the reference Centre, the Branch should undertake the formal registration process of the Collaboration described below.

Any group or organisation wishing to consider establishing a new Cochrane Centre within a country should make very early contact with the reference Cochrane Centre that currently exists to support that country. Proposals for new Cochrane Centres need to be circulated early on for discussion amongst existing Cochrane Centres and the Monitoring and Registration Committee. The establishment of a new Centre needs to be closely guided by the reference Cochrane Centre through its Director. Formal registration of a Cochrane Centre is required, as with all other entities within The Cochrane Collaboration. Such registration involves submitting an application to Monitoring and Registration Committee (MaRC) that addresses the checklist in the MaRC section of this Manual. A representative of the Monitoring and Registration Committee (MaRC) should be invited to attend the exploratory meeting(s). If an MaRC representative cannot attend (either in person, by VOIP or by teleconference), the organisers of the exploratory meeting(s) should ensure they discuss the registration process and a provisional agenda for the meeting(s) with an MaRC representative in advance. The aim of MaRC involvement is to help to ensure that the meeting(s) is/are as useful as possible to inform the proposed Centre's potential application for formal registration. There should be formal feedback to the MaRC representative, CCSG representative, and Entity Executive, to ensure effective communication, which should include a person-to-person discussion (e.g. by telephone) with the MaRC representative, and circulation of the exploratory meeting(s) minutes to the MaRC representative.

 Where significant changes are expected to a Cochrane Centre (such as change of location, change of Director, or establishment of an additional Branch/Branches) these need to be communicated to the Monitoring and Registration Committee (see Appendix 2). It is important to recognise that registration of a Cochrane Centre is made to an individual (or group of individuals) conditional upon their agreement to provide the range of support services outlined above. Cochrane Centres do not belong to institutions or funding agencies in perpetuity. Decisions about registration and de-registration of Cochrane Centres are the sole responsibility of The Cochrane Collaboration through its Steering Group.

Monitoring the performance of a Cochrane Centre

Once a Centre has become registered, its performance is monitored fully every two years and monitored financially in the intervening year, by the Monitoring and Registration Committee of the Steering Group. The process is chiefly one of self-assessment to help the Monitoring and Registration Committee to gain an overall picture of how Centres work and to identify any common or individual difficulties that Centres are experiencing.

The purpose of the monitoring process is to maintain or raise the quality and productivity of Cochrane entities by helping them identify areas in which they excel or in which they have not yet achieved their potential. The Monitoring and Registration Committee includes representatives of the five types of Cochrane entity (Cochrane Review Groups, Centres, Fields, Methods Groups and the Consumer Network), some of whom have been directly elected to the Steering Group.

The Monitoring and Registration Committee does not regard itself as a censorious body, and will strive to help Cochrane entities that are having particular difficulties. However, if a Centre repeatedly fails to perform its core duties adequately, the Monitoring and Registration Committee does have the responsibility for asking the Steering Group to consider de-registering the Centre.

 3.3.1 Centre Branches: Core functions and accountability mechanisms  

(This section provided by the Centre and Branch Directors' Executive and added on 12 August 2011.)

On 18 October 2010, at their meeting in Keystone, Colorado, USA, the Centre and Branch Directors agreed the following regarding the core functions of Branches. 

Within the geographic area for which the Branch is responsible, the core functions of Branches are:

1.  
   1. To promote and represent The Cochrane Collaboration.
   2. To serve as a source of information about The Cochrane Collaboration.
   3. To provide or facilitate training and support for contributors or potential contributors to The Cochrane Collaboration.
   4. To promote accessibility to The Cochrane Library to healthcare professionals, patients and others, e.g. by pursuing national subscriptions and translations where necessary. 

The Branch may carry out other optional functions as agreed between the Branch and the parent Centre, for example the handsearching of healthcare journals. 

In fulfilling these core and other functions, Branches are required to:

• ensure effective and efficient communication with the parent Centre;
• maintain their contact details in Archie;
• maintain a Branch website (strongly encouraged) or provide information about the Branch on the parent Centre’s website.

The Centre and the Branch agree in writing what functions will be carried out by the Branch and what support the Branch can expect from its parent Centre. The parent Centre informs the Monitoring and Registration Committee about the agreed functions and of any changes of functions.

Lisa Bero, Alessandro Liberati, Steve McDonald, Mary Ellen Schaafsma and Rob Scholten,
Centre and Branch Directors' Executive
7 December,  2010

3.3.3 Generic position description for a Cochrane Centre Director

(This section provided by the Centre Directors' Executive and added on 21 September 2011.)