Background: Different methods have been suggested for setting priorities for research. Priority setting for health research should include the views and needs of different stakeholders and ideally considers the impact of healthcare interventions on different socioeconomic groups and the inequalities in effects across them. Objectives: To develop an equity lens for the methods and processes to identify priority topics for Cochrane reviews. Methods: We did a survey of Cochrane Review Groups (CRGs) on their method and process of prioritization and how equity was considered. The results of the survey along with an analysis of the relevant literature were discussed in a workshop in the Cochrane Colloquium in Freiburg. Based on these discussions, the main steps for conducting a prioritization of Cochrane reviews were identified and an equity lens was developed taking into consideration the Whitehead definition of health inequity ‘differences in health which are not only unnecessary and avoidable but, in addition, are considered unfair and unjust’. Results: We identified 11 steps for the prioritization process of Cochrane reviews. We propose nine questions to evaluate whether health equity was considered in the process. These include questions on methods and tools to include the opinion of disadvantaged populations, to evaluate the differences in the effect of the intervention across different groups or how they value the differences. We will report on the pilot-testing of the equity lens to evaluate five different prioritization processes for systematic reviews. Conclusions: The equity lens could provide a guide for CRGs to develop more equitable approaches for identifying priority topics for Cochrane reviews.