All studies should report methods and findings in full, following credible and justifiable reporting guidelines. According to the guiding principles of the Ensuring Value in Research (EViR) Funders’ Forum (www.evir.org), this applies irrespective of the nature of the findings or whether the study was completed as planned.

One way for a public funding agency to address evidence quality and transparency is to adaptively implement EQUATOR reporting guidelines (www.equator-network.org) in its funding procedure to ensure research quality ‘from proposal to publication’. The Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development, ZonMw, has created the ZonMw Reporting Checklist (ZRC), which was derived from EQUATOR reporting guidelines in order to systematically plan, monitor, and evaluate projects. The next step is experimenting with implementing the ZRC in ZonMw’s grant management system and procedures. Customization is possible based on the ‘comply or explain’ approach (80/20 rule).

We selected 15 EQUATOR reporting guidelines that covered basic research and health technology assessment through to implementation projects, supplemented with the reporting guideline for implementation studies (StaRI checklist). We conducted comparative content analyses (including rearrangement) to provide a greatest common denominator consisting of both standard and modular reporting elements. We completed the ZRC by adding other current requirements for responsible research practices with respect to diversity and gender, data management, open access, systematic reviews, recruitment and inclusion, registration, and impact.

The ZRC results in structured and validated in-house data on the objectives, design, conduct, and results of ZonMw projects. This is an important source for good research governance, impact assessment, and research on research.

Implementation of the ZRC by a funding agency optimizes the quality, transparency, relevance, and impact of evidence, which legitimately and effectively improves health care for all.