Policy Research Programme and Policy Reviews Facility

Supporting national policy development and evaluation

CRD collaborates with the EPPI-Centre (University College London) and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine to provide the London-York Policy Research Programme Evidence Review Facility (PRF).

The Facility works with the NIHR Policy Research Programme, in partnership with the DHSC, to ensure that independent evidence supports the development and implementation of health policy through:

Undertaking policy-relevant systematic reviews of health and social care research
Developing capacity for undertaking and using reviews
Producing new and improved methods for undertaking reviews
Promoting global awareness and use of systematic reviews in decision-making

We also collaborate with colleagues at the Exeter PRP Evidence Review Facility.

Latest publications

Raine G, Khouja C, Khatwa M, Fulbright H, Sutcliffe K, Sowden AJ. Grief, bereavement and prolonged grief disorder: scoping and mapping the evidence. BJPsych Open 2025;11:e149

Lorenc T, Burchett H, Mendizabal-Espinosa R, Stansfield C, Sutcliffe K, Sowden A. Children's views of obesity, body size and weight: systematic review of UK qualitative evidence. J Epidemiol Community Health 2026 Jan 27 [Epub ahead of print]

Best evidence toolkits: a case study on interventions for preventing violence against women and girls (VAWG)

Methods used to conceptualise dimensions of health equity impacts of public health interventions in systematic reviews