Report of the 5th EVIPNetEurope multicountry meeting (2017)

The Evidence-informed Policy Network (EVIPNet) Europe is an initiative of the WHO Regional Office for Europe intended to strengthen health outcomes across the WHO European Region through building and institutionalizing knowledge translation capacity at national level. The fifth annual multicountry meeting of EVIPNet Europe took place in June 2017 and was attended by participants and observers from 19 countries, territories and areas, plus, for the first time, representatives of the Wellcome Trust and Cochrane. Two parallel workshop tracks covered the development of evidence briefs for policy (EBP) and rapid response services (RRS). Participants were able either to further develop their EBP with external technical assistance or to develop RRS proposals for their countries with expert and peer support. The meeting also provided an opportunity for EVIPNet Europe members to take stock of the network's achievements, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, and through participatory methods provide the first input to developing the new EVIPNet Europe strategy for 2018 – 2022. EVIPNet Europe’s next steps will be to (i) increase the support for evidenceinformed policy-making, especially among high-level stakeholders; (ii) advance the work on RRS and EBPs across the region; (iii) develop a new strategy guiding the network’s progress for the next five years; and (iv) prepare with the Cochrane trainers for the co-facilitation of future EVIPNet Europe workshops.