At the United Nations Summit of the Future, two major funding bodies announced £54.2 million of new funding for evidence synthesis: £45 million from Wellcome and £9.2 million from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).

The announcements represent significant investment in evidence synthesis to help tackle global inequity and address the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Cochrane was represented at the summit by our Editor in Chief, Dr Karla Soares-Weiser.

“It is invigorating to see major global funders recognizing the importance of evidence synthesis in addressing the challenges facing the world today and in the future,” says Karla. “This significant investment has the potential to catalyze a step change in evidence synthesis, making it more timely, relevant and equitable. Cochrane has a proud history of advancing evidence synthesis, and we stand ready to support this vital global effort. I am especially excited at the potential to reduce global inequities in both producing and accessing high-quality evidence.”

Both funding calls are aimed at building infrastructure to support rapid evidence synthesis projects so that policymakers have access to the latest evidence on a given topic. The Wellcome announcement focuses on ‘living evidence synthesis’, where systematic reviews are continually updated so they always reflect the latest evidence. Wellcome’s announcement notes that ‘the Cochrane Collaboration, which produces gold-standard evidence syntheses in medicine, increasingly backs living evidence models’.

Living evidence

Cochrane is a pioneer of living systematic reviews, having published the world’s first living systematic reviews in 2017. Lessons from the pilot project were published in 2019, in a project co-led by Professor Tari Turner at Cochrane Australia, who serves on Cochrane’s Editorial Board and is Academic Director of the Australian Living Evidence Collaboration.

“It’s fantastic to see this global commitment to living evidence and recognition of Cochrane's leadership in this area,” says Tari. “The new funding is fantastic news for both evidence synthesis professionals and decision-makers who need up-to-date evidence. Living reviews come with many opportunities and challenges which we identified in our pilot programmes, and it’s great to see them getting the attention they deserve.”