Sandy Oliver is Professor of Public Policy at UCL Institute of Education, London, where she is a founding member of the EPPI-Centre (the Evidence for Policy and Practice Information and Coordinating Centre) and Director of the Social Science Research Unit. She is also a Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Department of the Humanities, University of Johannesburg, working with the Africa Centre for Evidence. For thirty years her interests have focused on the interaction between researchers and people making decisions in their professional and personal lives. Recognising systematic reviews as a key mechanism for this interaction she has been conducting systematic reviews, developing methods to suit evidence needs of public policy and the third sector, and facilitating stakeholder engagement with the production and use of systematic reviews. Most recently this has been in the area of international development and humanitarian aid where she has conducted systematic reviews and built up a programme of support for research teams conducting reviews elsewhere. She is a member of the Board of the Campbell Collaboration, a Cochrane editor with their Consumers and Communication Review Group, and a co-convenor of the Cochrane Agenda and Priority Setting Methods Group.