Lesley Stewart
Director / Head of Department

Profile

Biography

‌Lesley is Professor of Evidence Synthesis and has been CRD Director and Head of Department since 2006. She is also the Programme Director for the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Evidence Synthesis Programme.

Lesley was a founding member of Cochrane, founding Co-Editor in Chief of the Biomed Central journal Systematic Reviews (2010-2021) and one of the first cohort of National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Senior Investigators (2008 – 2013). In 2013, she was elected to serve as president for the international Society for Research Synthesis Methodology. She has also served on the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) Highly Specialised Technologies Committee (2014-2022).

Lesley’s research interests are in the development and application of evidence synthesis methods, particularly systematic review and individual participant data (IPD) meta-analysis. She helped establish the methodology and framework for IPD reviews and has completed many such international collaborative projects. She has co-convened the Cochrane IPD Meta-analysis Methods Group since inception in 1993.

She has long-standing interest in research transparency and data sharing. In her previous role as Head of the Medical Research Council (MRC) Clinical Trials Unit Meta-analysis programme she was responsible for development and oversight of a register of UK cancer clinical trials (the first register to be made openly available online). At CRD, she instigated the development of and oversees PROSPERO the international prospective register of systematic reviews.

Lesley has served on many advisory and editorial boards including Cochrane Denmark, Current Controlled Trials, BMJ Open, Research Synthesis Methods currently, and previously the Systematic Review Data Repository Governance Board (2013-2019), COVID-END partnership (2020-2023) and the WHO Expert Advisory Panel on Clinical Practice Guidelines and Clinical Research Methods and Ethics (2013-2015). She has been chair or member of international steering committees that developed reporting guidance (PRISMA, PRISMA-IPD, PRISMA-P, PRISMA-ScR) and tools (RoB-2, ROB-ME, TACIT) for use in evidence synthesis.

Between 2006 and 2022, in addition to her role in individual research projects, Lesley directed the York NIHR Technology Assessment Review (TAR) team, which provides technology assessments that support NICE decision-making. She is currently a member of the University of York’s governing body, University Council.