The Governing Board met in Manchester (UK) on Saturday 25 and Sunday 25 April. The Board normally meets in person twice a year.

Strategic direction and looking to the future

One of the main items on the agenda for the meeting was the strategic direction of Cochrane, a plan for which the Board approved in early March.  

The choices to be made around how involved Cochrane should be in the next steps that are coming out of the Evidence Synthesis Infrastructure Collaborative were considered.

Partnering with other organizations to develop a global infrastructure to support the creation, sharing, and reuse of structured evidence synthesis data presents both opportunities and risks that need to be balanced.  

The Board considered developments in the external environment and the opportunities that lie ahead for Cochrane and agreed that when we work in partnership with other organizations, Cochrane’s uniqueness and independence must be protected. The Community must be closely involved in agreeing next steps in producing living evidence, structured data and AI enabled workflows that strengthen quality and more needs to be done to ensure the value of Cochrane wide and diverse global community is involved in developing the direction of travel.

The new Editor in Chief Dr Rupa Sarkar outlined her ambition for the Cochrane Library to be the world’s most trusted and authoritative source of systematic reviews. In the future, Cochrane will focus on delivering more timely and responsive reviews, on the responsible and accredited use of AI, continued leadership in methods, and the use of reusable, structured data. The Editor in Chief and the Board agreed that delivery of this ambition depends on the strength of the Cochrane community.

The Interim Chief Operating Officer, Mike Wetherell updated the Board on operational matters including financial and staffing matters.

Colloquium 2027

The Board approved the selection of the 2027 Colloquium, once contracts have been signed an announcement will be made.

Governing Board elections and appointments 

Juan Franco and Tamara Kredo both come to the end of their second and final terms this year and so, elections will be held. Two appointed members will be sought too.

The results of a skills audit informed the Board’s decision that new members who bring a broad and complementary range of skills and experience spanning AI and technology, commercial expertise, intellectual property and publishing will be sought.

The Board is keen to ensure that applications are received from individuals whose formative education, professional career, or leadership experience has been substantially shaped by low- or middle-income countries or Global South contexts.

Establishment of Cochrane UK 

Jan Clarkson and Anne Marie Glenny (co-authors of the Cochrane Oral Health Group that is based in the School of Dentistry at The University of Manchester) joined the Board on the second day of the meeting and gave an update on plans to establish a UK Cochrane Centre at the University of Manchester.  

Jan and Anne Marie reported that the process of applying to become a Geographic Group was initiated after discussion at the Cochrane Leaders’ Meeting in Lisbon in October 2025 when the need to increase evidence synthesis capability and capacity in the UK was identified.  

Other 

The Board also reviewed the draft Trustees’ Annual report and Account for 2025, an updated financial delegations policy, the scheme of delegation that sets out and framework for decision making and the register of policies.

The Board will meet again virtually in October and face to face in December.