New role for Professor Lesley Stewart

Posted on 2 September 2022

CRD’s Head of Department Professor Lesley Stewart has been appointed as the new Director for the NIHR Evidence Synthesis Programme.

Working in this national role two days a week she will oversee a period of transformational change within the programme, including setting up a new network of UK based evidence synthesis groups. Together with the established NIHR TAR groups who deliver research to underpin NICE decision-making, the new groups will support evidence informed health and care decision-making across the UK.

Lesley who took up her appointment on June 1^st said “I am delighted to be taking over as programme director at a pivotal moment. As highlighted in the Global Commission on Evidence report, the COVID-19 pandemic has created a once in a generation focus on research evidence. Now is the time to strengthen the role that research evidence plays in informing health and care policy and to rethink how evidence support systems can better serve society. I am looking forward to playing my part in making NIHR ESP an inclusive, world-leading and internationally trusted source of evidence that both meets the needs of UK decision makers and contributes to a global evidence network".