On Think Tanks was founded in mid 2010. It has evolved from a blog into a global platform dedicated to study and support policy research and policy research centres, or think tanks. The members of the On Think Tanks Team and its Advisory Board are spread out across 6 continents!
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A lot of effort goes into developing strategic plans in think tanks and government institutions as means to bring about change. However, in a previous post, I argued that...
More and more organisations are putting an increasing emphasis on influencing policy (and not just delivering services). Staff working for these organisations are now...
Most think tanks organise events around the publication of a book or report or run workshops, seminars and round tables to exchange and disseminate information. Ideally, a policy engagement...
The research agenda for the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) (set out in its strategy) is undeniably impressive, covering a wide range of development issues. But...
It is obvious that a think tank’s staff is its most valuable resource. High staff turnover and low productivity are clear signs of an under-motivated staff. Actually,...
Think tanks have to fundraise. Think tank directors and even individual researchers must spend significant portions of their time fundraising. This is true everywhere -even in developed...
Dr. Annapoorna Ravichander, editor at large for South Asia at On Think Tanks interviewed Gurucharan G, director at Public Affairs Centre (PAC) in Bengaluru, as part of the series on South...
Part 2 of 2. Funding challenges and CaPRI´s private sector model Damien King is the Executive Director at the Caribbean Policy Research Institute (CaPRI), as well as one...
Part 1 of 2: On Research, Communications and Credibility Damien King is the Executive Director at the Caribbean Policy Research Institute (CaPRI), as well as one of its...
The Institute for Security Studies (ISS) is the leading think tank on human conflict and security crises on the continent. It’s first francophone regional office in...
Science, Technology and Innovation Policy Research Organization (STIPRO) aims to be an informative resource for policymakers and others participating in policy debates in...
Think tanks in Canada face concerns similar to their US counterparts. Funding, of course, is a key challenge. Sustained and unconditional grants are the most coveted...
This ‘health check’ aims to support think tanks and research institutes to refine and improve their communications. The tool covers six key areas: strategy, capacity, systems, audiences, channels & messaging and monitoring. It recognises that communication is a complicated process involving strategy, tactics and all sorts of inputs. In other words, it is not all about outputs.
Raymond Struyk, author of Improving Think Tank Management, writes about Professional Development Grants to address high staff turnover and low productivity: In contrast to monetary...
Raymond Struyk, author of Improving Think Tank Management, writes about how well-managed think tanks can avoid a steady drum-beat of project cost overruns, and five key ingredients that...
In February 2018, we held the second On Think Tanks Conference in London. Attendants included think tank leaders and thinktankers, policy entrepreneurs working in the field of evidence informed policymaking,...
Fundraising remains a challenge for most organisations, and the need to explore innovative ways to remain sustainable and competitive is imperative. In this digital age, organisations are...
Raymond Struyk, author of Improving Think Tank Management, writes about how organisations can best manage individual consultants engaged to carry out major tasks largely independently,...
This toolkit provides a framework to think about communications monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL), and provides example questions, indicators and tools to do...
Which Canadian think tanks are transparent about who funds them? Which lag behind their peers in Canada? And how do Canada’s think tanks compare to those in other countries when it comes...
On Think Tanks, la Universidad de Bath y la Universidad del Pacífico se han asociado para producir una serie de Documentos de Trabajo (Working Papers) centrados en el estudio de think tanks...
IDRC's new programme to support think tanks in Myanmar is open for applications. Eligibility This call is open to independent policy research institutions (“think tanks”), based...
In 2014 On Think Tanks embarked in a study of Latin American experiences of think tanks seeking to contribute to the electoral processes in their countries. This effort was consolidated in the publication Think Tanks...
On Think Tanks, University of Bath and Universidad del Pacífico have partnered to produce a series of Working Papers focused on the study of think tanks to give new researchers a chance to...
The Think 20 Summit GLOBAL SOLUTIONS is committed to involve the views and ideas of the next generation into global problem-solving. To do so, we encourage the most promising talents to...