I love the energy behind new initiatives, especially when they are collaborative, community-centred, and motivated by a desire to share capacities amongst amazing people. This is absolutely my happy place. My name is Ruth Stewart and I recently helped to establish the new Alive Learning Forum. 

Some of you might know me because back in 2012 I had the privilege of helping to establish the amazing Africa Evidence Network (AEN), a community of nearly 6000 individuals across Africa working to increase the use of evidence in decision-making. Leading that Network for 10 years was a truly humbling experience and convinced me of the power of collaborative initiatives. I continue to be motivated by the strapline of the AEN: that only together will evidence-informed decision-making become a reality.

Alive is the Alliance for Living Evidence, a global network of people and organisations working together to develop and test a new approach to evidence synthesis and use. We call this new approach, living evidence partnerships, and we are excited to see what it can achieve in improving evidence use and transforming social and environmental outcomes. Living evidence partnerships bring together organisations with a shared interest in tackling similar issues and challenges. So far there are living evidence partnerships on a diverse range of topics, from treatments for  Type II Diabetes, to improving mental health outcomes, to serving decision-makers with climate and health evidence. More living evidence partnerships are being developed all the time. 

The Alliance includes partners from across the evidence ecosystem, from evidence synthesis collaborations such as Cochrane, Campbell and JBI, from evidence intermediary organisations such as Instituto Veredas in Brazil and the Pan-African Collective for Evidence in South Africa, and from international bodies including the Global Evidence Commission and the World Bank. Alive also includes organisations that are relatively new to the evidence community with a focus on better decision-making for better outcomes.'

As we work together to deliver living evidence partnerships, we are learning about what works, what doesn’t work, and everything in between. To facilitate the sharing of insights and to provide a focal point for knowledge exchange, we have launched the Alive Learning Forum.

This is an open community [you can sign up here]. It is chaired by evidence leaders from across the world, who help to set the programme of activities delivered online. Our team of co-chairs includes the fantastic evidence leaders Racha Fadlallah and Tamara Kredo. We welcome nominations from others who are keen to join the Learning Forum chairing team or to contribute to our sessions. There are opportunities to take part synchronously via monthly events, and asynchronously via a growing bank of online resources: all the events are recorded and shared. Sessions are interactive, hosted across timezones, and simultaneous translation is available. 

The programme includes three types of activities: 

‍Alive Learns: Peer-learning, formal training, and technical assistance ‘clinics’ on methods and other elements of setting up and delivering successful Living Evidence Partnerships. 

‍Alive Talks: An expert presents on a particular topic, this could be a presentation from an Alliance member or an external expert who can prompt discussion about what living evidence can learn from parallel fields.

‍Alive Discusses: A facilitated group discussion on a shared topic, problem or opportunity facing members of the Alliance. 

The Alive Learning Forum is driven by the evidence community for the evidence community. At a time when the world needs evidence more than ever, I believe that there is nothing more important than collaborative learning for collaborative solutions. So please sign up for this new Forum, watch the launch event here (passcode: Ew0?i1Li), and get involved. 

To find out more about Alive, please contact us, hello@aliveevidence.org