This collaborative programme centred in Bristol and York attempts to develop and evaluate new statistical methods for complex evidence synthesis with applications in both epidemiology and medical decision-making.

This can be characterised as a multi-parameter generalisation of meta-analysis, but broadened and extended so that it can combine not only evidence from different sources and different research designs, but also data relating to complex functions of parameters.

The approach builds on the Confidence Profile Method (CPM) of David Eddy and colleagues, but with some major differences.

First, there is a commitment to develop richer, more complex, and more realistic applications than were attempted in the CPM literature; to develop robust statistical methods with standard software; to focus particularly on issues of evidence consistency - which have not been addressed in previous work; and to embed the programme firmly in the context of economic evaluation.