The Cochrane Scientific Committee met for the first time on the 18th May 2017. The Committee is a new body with responsibility for making scientific decisions about the implementation of new methods for Cochrane Reviews, and in their first meeting began by considering new risk of bias assessment tools ('Risk of bias' 2.0 tool and ROBINS-I) and the long-standing debate around methods for repeat or sequential meta-analysis.

We are also pleased to announce the Co-Chairs for the Cochrane Scientific Committee, Philippe Ravaud and Ana Marušić.

Philippe is Professor of Epidemiology at Paris Descartes University and adjunct professor at the Mailman School of Public Health (Columbia University, USA). He is the director of the INSERM-Paris Descartes Epidemiology and Biostatistics Research Center, Cochrane France and the French EQUATOR center.

Ana is Professor of Anatomy and Chair of the Department of Research in Biomedicine and Health at the University of Split School of Medicine, Split, Croatia. She is the founder and Research Coordinator of Cochrane Croatia.