Cochrane is delighted to announce that we have received a grant of USD $1.15 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The grant will support the development of Cochrane's next generation evidence system, with a specific focus on maternal and child health. This system is a major component of Cochrane's wider technology development program designed to address the challenge of ever-increasing health data, often with conflicting research findings, and builds on Cochrane’s initial investment in projects including Linked Data and Project Transform. The next generation evidence system will develop new technology, ontology, structures, machine learning, and crowd engagement to change the ways health data are utilized and discover new solutions for global health.

Project work funded by this grant will run from September 2016 to late February 2017, and project funds will be dispersed among many Cochrane Groups including the Child Health Field and the Pregnancy and Childbirth and Neonatal Review Groups.

“We are delighted and honoured to receive this grant,” said Mark Wilson, Cochrane’s CEO. “We are proud that this award represents an endorsement of strategic investments we have been making in Linked Data and new ways of working.”