Future Evidence Foundation

What Future Evidence Foundation does

Future Evidence Foundation is a Melbourne, Australia-based non-profit founded in 2023 that builds and operates Covidence, a software platform for evidence synthesis used by researchers conducting systematic reviews. Its core offering enables structured workflows for screening, data extraction, and quality assessment of research literature, serving over 300,000 researchers and students globally and accumulating approximately 12 million hours of usage. The foundation has developed the Living Evidence approach, a methodology for continuously updating scientific knowledge summaries rather than relying on static one-off reviews, which was published in Nature.

The foundation operates a self-serve, product-led growth SaaS model, distributing Covidence directly through its website to individual researchers, academic teams, and institutions. It partners with the Alive initiative to extend living evidence principles into healthcare and policy decision-making contexts. The organization is lean, with approximately 18 employees, and is led by CEO Julian Elliott alongside Chair Lisa Boothby, Co-Founder Russell Gruen, and Director Simon Lusted, whose cross-sector technology leadership is intended to accelerate platform development. The non-profit structure suggests any surplus is reinvested into platform and methodology improvements rather than returned to equity holders.

Name

Future Evidence Foundation

Legal name

Future Evidence Foundation

Website

https://futureevidence.org

Company type

Private

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Future Evidence Foundation is a Melbourne-based non-profit operating Covidence, an evidence synthesis platform used by over 300,000 researchers and students worldwide to conduct systematic literature reviews and living evidence summaries.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Research Software (Evidence Synthesis)

NAICS

Scientific Research and Development Services (5417), Research and Development in the Social Sciences and Humanities (541720), Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (54171)

SIC

Services-Prepackaged Software (7372), Services-Commercial Physical & Biological Research (8731)

akta.pro industry

PRIMARYHLAJAKAN

Global Health Research, Evidence & Technical Assistance Organizations

Healthcare & Life Sciences/Public Health, Government & Regulators/Global Health & Development Agencies (NGOs/Multilaterals)

SECONDARYBPAGAKAI

Research & Science Grantmaking Foundations

Business & Public Services/Nonprofit, NGO & Social Services/Philanthropy, Foundations & Grantmaking

SECONDARYEDAGAFAL

Conference Proceedings & Research Reports Publishing

Education/Educational Publishing & Learning Content/Academic & Scholarly Publishing (Journals, Monographs)

Keywords

• Evidence synthesis software
• Systematic review platform
• Research methodology tools
• Scientific knowledge management
• Literature review automation

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Covidence Platform: Covidence operates as the cornerstone product generating value for the research community. While specific revenue mechanics are not disclosed on the foundation's public website, the platform serves over 300,000 researchers and students across thousands of organizations.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Future Evidence Foundation operates Covidence, the world's leading evidence synthesis technology, a Software-as-a-Service platform that helps researchers and students create systematic reviews (accurate summaries of scientific knowledge) faster, easier and cheaper. The foundation also develops the Living Evidence approach — a methodology that delivers regularly updated online summaries of scientific knowledge that stay current with the latest research — and supports the Alive initiative, which applies living evidence to empower decision-makers in health, climate, and science domains.

Product overview

Future Evidence Foundation operates primarily through Covidence, its cornerstone product and the world's leading evidence synthesis technology. Covidence enables the creation of systematic reviews (accurate summaries of scientific knowledge) and is used by over 300,000 researchers and students across thousands of organizations. The organization has also pioneered the 'Living Evidence' approach, which provides regularly updated online summaries of scientific knowledge that stay current with the latest research. A related initiative called Alive focuses on empowering decision-makers to address global challenges through evidence-based approaches.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Covidence: The cornerstone product of Future Evidence Foundation - the world's leading evidence synthesis technology used by over 300,000 researchers and students.
• Living Evidence
• Alive

Products and services

• Covidence Covidence is the world's leading evidence synthesis technology, enabling researchers and students to create systematic reviews (accurate summaries of scientific knowledge) faster, easier, and cheaper. It is used by over 300,000 researchers and students across thousands of organizations and has saved the community 12 million hours.
• Living Evidence Living Evidence is a regularly updated online summary of scientific knowledge that stays current with the latest research, addressing the limitation of conventional static summaries that become outdated immediately upon publication. It provides scientific knowledge that is both accurate and current.

Quantifiable outcome

• Over 300,000 researchers and students actively using the platform
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers1 record

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature2 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• AlivecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerAlive is a partner organization in the Living Evidence initiative. Future Evidence Foundation references Alive's work in empowering decision-makers to solve the world's biggest problems through Living Evidence applications. The partnership focuses on expanding the reach and impact of living, continuously updated scientific knowledge summaries.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Broad incumbents

• Cochrane: Global leader in systematic reviews and evidence-based healthcare; comparable mission around trustworthy evidence synthesis and a direct overlapping contributor community with Covidence users.
• JBI (formerly Joanna Briggs Institute): International evidence-based healthcare research organization producing systematic reviews — comparable mission and overlapping researcher user base with Covidence and Living Evidence.

Direct peers

• EPPI-Centre / EPPI-Reviewer: Academic evidence synthesis tools used by researchers for systematic reviews — comparable mission and customer base to Covidence, though rooted in UK academic policy research.
• Rayyan: AI-powered literature screening and systematic review platform widely used by researchers — directly competes with Covidence, particularly in screening and collaboration workflows.
• Evidence Partners (DistillerSR): Commercial evidence synthesis platform serving systematic reviewers with workflow tools — directly competes with Covidence for the same academic and healthcare research customer base.

Others

• Covidence (the original SaaS prior to foundation spin-out context): Listed here as the foundation's own flagship product for context; within the broader market it sits alongside competitors such as DistillerSR and Rayyan as a category-defining workflow tool.
• SEEK Limited: Listed as an 'others' ecosystem connection: a director of Future Evidence Foundation is Managing Director of Strategy, Product and AI at SEEK, linking the foundation to a large-scale AI/tech operator with relevant product expertise.

Emerging players

• Nested Knowledge: Evidence synthesis and visualization platform for healthcare and life sciences — overlaps with Covidence's systematic review workflows but emphasizes interactive visualization and HEOR use cases.
• Epistemonikos: Collaborative, multilingual database of systematic reviews — comparable Living Evidence-style ambition to keep summaries current and broadly accessible to researchers.
• ASReview: Open-source AI-aided systematic reviewing tool developed by Utrecht University — competes with Covidence's screening workflow via active learning automation, appealing to academic users.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/future-evidence

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles4 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Future Evidence Foundation