The University of Nottingham Malaysia (UNM) co-hosted the GRADE Working Group Annual Meeting 2026 with the University of Nottingham Ningbo China (UNNC) on 14 September, welcoming around 71 participants from 12 countries. Professor Shahir Liew, Vice Provost of Research and Knowledge Exchange (RKE) at UNM, endorsed the hosting of the event at the Malaysia campus, with the event coordinated and supported by the RKE teams across both campuses.
The partnership brought the University of Nottingham's tri-campus network together around a shared area of expertise. Established through a collaboration between UNNC and the GRADE Working Group, the Nottingham Ningbo GRADE Centre serves as a hub for evidence synthesis and guideline development, supporting GRADE training and application across China and the wider region. Extending this year's meeting to Malaysia linked the Centre's work with UNM, creating a bridge between the university's campuses in the UK, China and Malaysia and the global GRADE community.
As local host, UNM welcomed delegates on campus while connecting international participants online through a hybrid format. Delivering the welcome remarks on behalf of UNM, Dr Kenny Voon, Director of Signature Strength (Health and Wellbeing), highlighted the university's commitment to promoting tri-campus events and created opportunities for its academics to engage with international collaborators in their fields at the same time. The meeting was opened by Professor Holger Schünemann, Chair of the GRADE Working Group and Professor of Public Health and Preventive Medicine at Humanitas University, Italy, and Dr Jun Xia, Director of the Nottingham Ningbo GRADE Centre, who led introductions and set out the day's agenda.
Shaping the Evidence Behind Global Healthcare Guidelines
To provide context, GRADE (Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation) is an internationally recognised framework for rating the certainty of evidence and the strength of recommendations in healthcare decision-making. It is used by the World Health Organization, Cochrane and more than 100 guideline-development organisations worldwide, meaning that refinements agreed by the Working Group play a role in shaping clinical guidelines that inform patient care. The GRADE Working Group, a global community of methodologists, guideline developers, clinicians and researchers, maintains and advances this methodology through ongoing collaboration, training, and its annual meeting.
The programme focused on new GRADE guidance is still in development, giving members the chance to shape methods before they are published. Schünemann presented new guidance on rating indirectness and led a discussion on a guidance article linking the GRADE Evidence to Decision (EtD) framework to research. Another session examined how time horizons should be built into judgements about the benefits and harms of health interventions.
Participants also received an update from the GRADE Guidance Group and discussed the use of GRADE in defining and describing outcomes. The day concluded with parallel project group sessions on thresholds for continuous outcomes and for diagnosis, a GRADE ontology, priority setting for recommendations, and GRADE's application to essential medicines lists.
The meeting marks another step in UNM's work to bring international research events to campus under the University of Nottingham's tri-campus banner.
Posted on 1st October 2026