Information and Data Curation Specialist

Title: Information and Data Curation SpecialistSpecifications: 2-year fixed term contract Salary: £40,000 full-time, £30,000 pro-rata at 0.75 FTEHours: 28 hours per week, 0.75 FTELocation: Remote first (home based) with some travel expected for in person meetingsClosing date: 2 August 2026Interview date: w/c 17 August 2026
 

Cochrane is a global, independent network of health practitioners, researchers, patient advocates and others, responding to the challenge of making vast amounts of research evidence useful for informing decisions about health. We do this by synthesizing research findings to produce the best available evidence on what can work, what might harm and where more research is needed. Our work is recognized as the international gold standard for high quality, trusted information. Though we are spread out across the globe, our shared passion for health evidence unites us and it is important that the role holder can work effectively and collaboratively with a diverse range of contacts across the world.

Our Central Executive Team supports this work and is divided into four directorates. This role reports to the Head of Evidence Pipeline and Data Curation and sits within the Publishing & Technology Directorate.

Purpose of the job

As part of the Cochrane Evidence Pipeline and Data Curation team, you will undertake information retrieval activities to support study identification processes across a range of Cochrane evidence types, as well as develop and/or maintain study repositories through data and metadata curation activities helping to make Cochrane evidence more discoverable and reusable.

The Evidence Pipeline aims to combine traditional search and retrieval processes with machine learning and crowdsourcing to expedite the study identification process and better enable the reuse of data. This role will include opportunities for methodological work as well as the opportunity to gain an understanding and experience of working with innovative technologies such as linked data, machine learning/AI and crowdsourcing.

Key areas of responsibility include

• Provide support for Cochrane’s two main study identification services: the Centralised Search Service (CSS) which identifies studies for CENTRAL, and the Cochrane Study Identification Service (CSIS), which supports searches for individual reviews.
• Help to create and maintain new evidence pipelines and study repositories through the development of information retrieval workflows that use a combination of machine and human approaches.
• Work on the Cochrane guideline linking initiative which involves identifying and linking guidelines and policy documents to relevant Cochrane reviews.
• Provide support for Cochrane Crowd as a resolver screener in the Cochrane Crowd platform, participate actively in regular evaluations of crowd processes, support users using the Screen4Me workflow.
• For all areas of work, you will be required to join and, where appropriate, help to organise and administer regular team meetings. You will also need to liaise directly across multiple project teams and partners as appropriate.

The successful candidate is expected to have

• University degree and/or experience in information management/information science.
• Experience with searching major bibliographic databases and trial registries such as MEDLINE/PubMed, EMBASE, CENTRAL, ClinicalTrials.gov.
• Experience with undertaking information retrieval activities in the area of evidence synthesis, ideally in the health or healthcare domains.
• Experience developing and/or maintaining a repository or register of studies within a particular domain area.
• Experience using systematic review software such as the Cochrane Register of Studies, RevMan, Covidence, Eppi Reviewer.
• General understanding of controlled vocabularies, ontologies and effective data curation practices.
• Good understanding of evidence synthesis processes and current methods.

Don’t have every single qualification? We know that some people are less likely to apply for a job unless they are a perfect match. At Cochrane, we’re not looking for “perfect matches.” We’re looking to welcome people to our diverse, inclusive, and passionate workplace. So, if you’re excited about this role but don’t have every single qualification, we encourage you to apply anyway. Whether it’s this role or another one, you may be just the right candidate.
Our organization is built on four core values: 

1. Collaboration: Underpins everting we do, locally and globally.
2. Relevant: The right evidence at the right time in the right format.
3. Integrity: Independent and transparent.
4. Quality: Reviewing and improving what we do, maintaining rigour and trust.

You can expect

• An opportunity to truly impact health globally.
• A flexible work environment which includes remote-first working (although you will be required to attend in person meetings from time to time, depending on your location and the needs of the role).
• An environment where people feel welcome, heard, and included, regardless of their differences.

Cochrane welcomes applications from a wide range of perspectives, experiences, locations and backgrounds; diversity, equity and inclusion are key to our values. We are a Disability Confident Employer which means that applications from candidates who share they are disabled, and who meet the criteria for the role, will be guaranteed an interview.

Please note that candidates appointed and based in the UK, Denmark or Germany will be offered the advertised salary. Candidates appointed outside of these locations will be offered a local salary aligned to local market rates, which will be confirmed at the point of offer.

How to apply

• Find further information on the role and how to apply.
• The deadline to receive your application is 2 August 2026.
• The supporting statement should indicate why you are applying for the post, and how far you meet the requirements, using specific examples.
• Find out more about our candidate packwhich gives you more information about our employee benefits and outlines what you can expect from the application process.
• Read our Recruitment Privacy Statement.