Cochrane Canada returning to McMaster with new director

The Cochrane Canada Centre is returning to McMaster Univ following support from a benefactor who will be announced in the near future. The Centre was slated for closure following a 2015 decision not to renew central funding by the cash-strapped Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). The centre — one of 14 worldwide — received $9.6 million in CIHR funding over five years in 2010. The agency informed the centre in 2014 that it has changed its policy to largely eliminate the use of directed grants, sparking the launch of a petition to avoid its closure. The centre's move back to McMaster coincides with the appointment of Dr Holger Schünemann — a professor and chair of McMaster's department of clinical epidemiology and biostatistics — as its new director. Cochrane centres provide systematically organized medical research gathered by 37,000 volunteers in more than 130 countries for use by health professionals, patients, policy makers and others, and are considered essential for evidence-based decision making. Core funding of Cochrane Canada remains uncertain and it's unclear whether CIHR will reverse its decision following a $45-million funding increase announced in the 2015 and 2016 Budgets….