For over 30 years, the Cochrane Collaboration has set the standard for systematic reviews in health research. Our reviews have saved and improved countless lives across the world, providing trustworthy evidence to inform health decisions at all levels, from international policymakers to individual patients.

We now want to take evidence synthesis to the next level, creating a more dynamic, open and equitable system so that decision-makers always have the latest evidence at their fingertips. The ways that people across the world find, access and use information has fundamentally changed, accelerated by the proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI) tools.

We remain proud of our systematic reviews, but recognise that static publications cannot keep pace with the needs of decision-makers or the speed at which misinformation travels. Decision-makers need to be able to access relevant evidence quickly and efficiently, which we aim to achieve by responsibly deploying AI tools with appropriate human oversight.

Today, our published reviews are just the visible surface of a much deeper reservoir; beneath them lies a rich, structured body of curated data. We want to radically enrich and open up our data infrastructure so that decision-makers can get the evidence they need when they need it.

From floppy disks to federated global infrastructure

Open data has long been at the heart of Cochrane’s approach. In the 1990s, the precursor to the Cochrane Library included an interactive meta-analysis tool that allowed users to see results change dynamically as studies were added to the analysis. At the time, this was limited to the clinical trials included on the floppy disks and CD-ROMs that the database was available on.

Now we face no such limitations. There is a wealth of primary research available, the challenge is corralling and curating it into reusable living data. We already have validated infrastructure in place to collect rich bibliometric data on randomized controlled trials in our CENTRAL database, powered by machine learning and supported by citizen scientists.

Cochrane Crowd enables us to harness the enthusiasm of our global network of volunteers to accurately classify primary research while training and validating machine learning approaches. Our future ambition is to drastically scale up this approach in both breadth and depth, encompassing a wider range of evidence and diving much deeper into the primary data.  

Embedding equity

Cochrane’s transformation is not just technical, it’s deeply rooted in equity. We believe that evidence should be created and used by everyone, not just a privileged few. That’s why we’re building infrastructure that supports open contribution, enabling individuals and organizations from all regions to participate in the evidence-building process.

This approach will help democratize evidence synthesis. Whether you're a researcher in Nairobi, a health worker in Dhaka or a policymaker in Bogotá, Cochrane aims to provide tools and platforms that allow you to contribute to and benefit from high-quality, curated data. By decentralizing participation and embedding equity into our systems, we can ensure that evidence reflects diverse contexts and serves global needs.

Powered by AI, guided by people

Central to this transformation is the responsible use of AI and machine learning tools. We are developing new approaches to data classification and curation that will dramatically accelerate the evidence production process. By combining human expertise with AI-enabled tools, we aim to reduce duplication, improve accuracy and unlock insights faster than ever before.

This isn’t about replacing people, it’s about empowering them. Our vision is one where humans and machines work together, with AI supporting contributors to build structured datasets that can be reused across sectors and regions. This will allow us to answer complex questions more efficiently and deliver evidence in formats that meet the needs of policymakers, practitioners and communities.

We are privileged to have a diverse global community of Cochrane groups and contributors, whose expertise and understanding will remain pivotal to ensure that our evidence is trustworthy, timely and relevant to decision-makers.  

A new era of global collaboration

Cochrane is proud to stand alongside the Evidence Synthesis Infrastructure Collaborative (ESIC) in its call to build a better future powered by evidence and guided by collective impact. We are fully aligned with ESIC’s principles and roadmap, contributing to shared infrastructure and collaborating with partners across sectors and regions.

While the operational details are still being refined, our direction of travel is clear: we are becoming faster, more inclusive and more responsive to the needs of the world. We know that the challenges ahead are complex, but we know that we can overcome them by working together: sharing data, building trust, and putting equity at the heart of everything we do. Cochrane is ready to play its part, and we invite others to join us in shaping a future where evidence drives collective impact.

The time to act is now. The future of evidence is living, equitable and powered by people everywhere. Cochrane is ready.