The importance of PROSPERO to the National Institute for Health Research

A key role of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) is to develop the research evidence to support decision-making by professionals, policy-makers and patients, to make this evidence available, and to encourage its uptake and use.Decision-makers in health care, both clinicians (making decisions directly with their patients) and policy-makers, rely particularly on systematic reviews. These represent the highest level in a hierarchy of research evidence, especially when they combine the findings from multiple randomized controlled trials using meta-analysis. At a time when the amount of new published research evidence is increasing so rapidly, systematic reviews also provide an important practical way for professionals to remain up to date with developments in evidence in their fields.The NIHR is making sure that the UK health service has access to the best possible evidence to inform decisions and choices by commissioning systematic reviews, by building capacity for their conduct and supporting the development of methods. Over the last 5 years, the NIHR has invested over ￡35 million in the infrastructure and related programs that are required within the UK to support the production of high-quality systematic reviews, and it will continue to invest in this key area.However, resources are finite and, in the same way that health services must continually strive for effectiveness and efficiency in the treatments and services they provide, so research commissioners must ensure that waste is avoided in the development of research evidence. Investment in new research studies can only be justified when the questions they are addressing cannot be answered by existing evidence [1]. Systematic reviews provide an important way of defining unanswered questions in health and social care, and research commissioners are increasingly expecting applications for research funds to be supported by the findings of systematic reviews.The NIHR has supported the development of In