How CONSORT is funded
By and large, the work of the CONSORT initiative has been moving forward through the in-kind contributions of experts around the world who comprise the CONSORT Group. Without them, there would have been little progress made in the development of this evidence-based reporting guideline. In fact, it has consistently been immensely difficult to raise money to support CONSORT.
One-time sources of funding have been obtained for specific meetings of the CONSORT Group, especially when focussed on a specific issue (e.g., the reporting of harms). Sponsors for these meetings have recognized their importance in the inherently collaborative process of developing the CONSORT Statement. By contrast, the CONSORT Group has never achieved adequate support for its ongoing activities, without which none of the CONSORT publications could have been produced.
A small grant to support ongoing administrative and research support was obtained from the US National Library of Medicine (1999 to 2004). More recently a grant from the National Coordinating Centre for Research Methodology on behalf of the Department of Health in the UK (2006 to 2011) has supported two part-time appointments for five years. This funding is greatly appreciated by the CONSORT Group, and has enabled some aspects of the work to be funded that was never before formally supported. Even with this funding, however, there is still a long way to go for CONSORT to be self-sustaining. Despite continual efforts of the CONSORT executive to secure much-needed financial support, the current regular and one-time sources of funding do not fully support the ongoing activities of CONSORT, which involve monitoring, evaluation, and dissemination, much less its future research goals.
Results from a recent survey indicate that one of the major frustrations held by reporting guideline developers is their inability to obtain funding to initiate, maintain, and/or disseminate their reporting guides (Iveta Simera, EQUATOR Network, personal communication). This finding echoes the experience of the CONSORT Group.
The advancement of the CONSORT initiative continues to rely heavily on the in-kind contributions of individuals who have taken a keen interest in contributing. For example, the development of the CONSORT extensions for abstracts and for non-pharmacological treatment interventions were done as part of two separate post-graduate research projects, and the development of the CONSORT flow-diagram generator is a tool borne from technological expertise outside of CONSORT’s usual circle of reference.
Although in-kind contributions have allowed CONSORT to continue to exist they have not enabled it to progress in a timely manner. Without consistent funding the CONSORT Group is unable to develop any meaningful planning and cannot address several important issues. The net result is a precarious existence, something that is far from useful.
More information is available on how to support CONSORT.
Page last edited: 24 March 2010
