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A first and fundamental step of all research projects is to define their aims. As for systematic reviews and meta‐analyses based on aggregate data, the aims of an IPD meta‐analysis project should be defined in relation to key components such as the participants, interventions, comparators or controls, outcomes and study designs of interest, aided by a framework such as PICOS (an example is given in Section 3.3).⁴² Most reviews based on aggregate data focus on summarising the overall treatment effect, and often IPD meta‐analysis projects also have this objective. However, IPD additionally allows participant‐level information to be examined and analysed, and so most IPD projects are specifically set up to utilise this. In particular, they may aim to summarise treatment effects conditional on prognostic factors (Chapters 5 and 6); to assess whether the treatment effect varies according to participant‐level characteristics (Chapter 7), or to evaluate treatment effects at multiple time‐points during follow‐up (Chapter 13). Indeed, the potential research questions that can be addressed by an IPD project are broad, and a wide variety of applications are demonstrated throughout this book.