Scientific advancement relies on incremental progress. Despite the constant stream of new data dispersed across academic publications, only a small fraction are used to guide future research projects. Without concerted efforts to summarise current evidence in the context of what is already known in the wider literature, key insights may be missed. To address this, we developed Systematic Online Living Evidence Summaries (SOLES) to improve evidence-based decision making and priority setting. SOLES uses automation and machine learning to continuously gather, synthesise, and summarise all existing evidence from a research area, making it available through interactive web applications. This approach can identify knowledge gaps, provide a starting point for more detailed reviews and facilitate collaboration. Having demonstrated feasibility across diverse fields (including Alzheimer’s disease, pesticide impacts and COVID-19), we are now working to move beyond research silos and map shared mechanisms, drug targets and underlying biological pathways across the biomedical literature.