The needs of a commissioned, rapid and responsive evidence synthesis programme extend beyond the sound technical and scientific practices of a review team. Relationship building and social processes are key to the scoping and shared learning process between the review commissioners and the review team, between the review team and diverse stakeholders (including PPI representatives) and within the review team itself. In some cases, the intended users are identifiable, offering a focus for consultation, but this adds a requirement for relationship management by the review team and NIHR commissioners. Rapid evidence synthesis programmes require experienced research staff to broker the relationship between objective, product and the needs of intended users throughout the scoping and question definition process. Relationships should be conducted within agreed principles for good evidence synthesis for policy. From the shared experiences and reflections from the three centres, from 2017 to 2020, we have identified common issues and suggested lessons for improving scoping processes to inform similar commissioned and responsive review programmes.
More prospective, methodological research conducted alongside such rapid and responsive review teams could be used to validate the considerations and competing goals of scoping identified in this report, and potentially develop strategies and tools for managing them more effectively. Such research will need to recognise the inevitable interplay between formalised/standardised and informal practices in science, and also the role of more tacit, experience-based forms of knowledge in policy and practice alongside explicit research-based knowledge.