Wales Centre for Evidence Based Care to develop rapid evidence reviews for the new Wales COVID-19 Evidence Centre

The Wales Centre for Evidence Based Care (WCEBC), which is based at the School of Healthcare Sciences, Cardiff University, has become a collaborating partner to the new Wales COVID-19 Evidence Centre with the purpose of developing rapid evidence reviews.

The collaboration between the WCEBC and the Wales COVID-19 Evidence Centre begins in May 2021 and will extend over a two-year period.

Funded by Health and Care Research Wales, the main objective of the Wales COVID-19 Evidence Centre is to make use of national and international research findings to support future decision-making by NHS Wales and the Welsh Government.

Researchers within the Centre will identify and bring together pre-existing evidence from global research, so that it can be put into policy and practice and make a real difference to the many issues that have arisen from the pandemic.

On receiving the news of the collaboration Dr Judith Carrier, Director of the WCEBC, commented;

"We are delighted to have been invited to participate in this opportunity. In addition to being a JBI centre of excellence the WCEBC has completed several commissioned reviews for a variety of organisations which have influenced policy and practice, as a team we have developed significant experience in several systematic review methodologies and look forward to working with the other collaborating partners on this valuable programme of work." 

Professor Adrian Edwards, Director of the Wales COVID-19 Evidence Centre, said:

“Research matters like never before – it is central to policy and practice in the pandemic. For example, we need to understand the impact of the pandemic on the health of communities and people in Wales and on the health and care delivery systems in Wales. We are delighted to include WCEBC in this vital work on the management, recovery and regeneration phases from the pandemic.”