In August 2021 the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) notified us that their funding for our Cochrane Gynaecological, Neuro-oncology and Orphan Cancer Group (GNOC), along with other Groups based in England, UK, will cease at the end of March 2023. We have received many years of stable funding from the NIHR which has allowed our editorial base to support the production of systematic reviews and the sharing of knowledge to assess evidence contributing to these reviews for patients, clinicians and decision-makers. For this we are grateful, however, we are also disappointed that the huge number of people from across the world who contribute will lose the support of the core editorial team.

The NIHR have indicated that they will make a further announcement regarding future funding opportunities for a smaller number of prospective Evidence Synthesis Units in December 2021. Alongside this Cochrane is currently developing a new model for delivering Evidence Synthesis and information relating to this can be found here.

The full implications of this and how/if the UK CRGs will operate after this point in time has yet to be decided, although a transition plan is being developed by Cochrane UK and the Cochrane Editorial Management Department.

We are not certain what the future holds, but we are also developing a plan to fulfil our obligations to the NIHR until our current contract end date.  

We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your continuing support.

The GNOC Editorial Team