Collaborative projects

The Exchange supports two types of collaborative projects:

1. A divers and barriers to collaboration action learning project; and
2. A series of Policy or Organisational Development collaborative projects

The “Drivers and Barriers” Action Learning Project

One of the threads connecting the exchange events will be an “action learning” project to be carried out by the participants on “The driver and barriers faced by think tanks to collaboration within their own region and with other regions”. The aim is that by the end of the process the participants will have investigated the drivers and barriers to collaboration -as well as the effects of collaboration- and incorporated them into their own efforts.

There will be a strong  element of “action learning” in the ‘drivers and barriers’ collaborative research project, since the participants will be given time and space to reflect on the factors that affected their ability to carry out the collaborative research project (cultural differences, differences in institutional cultures, time zone differences and scheduling, etc.).

The “drivers and barriers to collaboration” project will involve activities by the participants at the events as well as between events. At each exchange event, the participants will have the opportunity to present their work, receive feedback and advice, and plan next steps in the research process.

This project also offers an opportunity to ‘break the ice’ at the first exchange event. Participants will be asked to prepare to discuss barriers with their peers.

For the first event, in Lima, the participants were asked to reflect on past experiences from their own organisations. The papers served as a discussion-starter for the project.

The papers, and other resources, will be shared during the next few weeks and updated below:

• A couple of notes on collaboration between think tanks
• Some factors to consider when collaborating with other think tanks by Leandro Echt (Argentina)
• Barriers to Collaboration: Grupo FARO by Adriana Arellano (Ecuador)
• Experiences with Collaboration Projects: Centre for European and North Atlantic Affairs (CENAA) by Radka Vicenová (Slovak Republic)
• Cooperation between think tanks in Ukraine: experience of the Centre for Political and Legal Reforms, by Nadia Dobryanska (Ukraine)
• Barriers to collaboration: Instituto de Estudios Peruanos by Francesca Uccelli (Peru)
• Barriers to Collaboration: Budapest Institute by Petra Reszkető (Hungary)
• Thinking out loud on paper about collaboration among think tanks by Renata Dalaqua (Brazil)
• New lessons on fostering collaboration

In the run up to the second event in Jakarta (#TheExchangeJakarta) we asked the participants to share some of their own reflections on the process so far. The following link up to the various posts they wrote. We will be updating the list as others become available:

• From Brazil: From Quito to Tbilisi: international collaboration and long-distance (work) relationships
• From Ukraine: Learning from differences: first steps of the think tank communication case-study project
• From Ecuador: So far, so good!
• From Georgia: Reflections on Being a Part of International Collaborative Project
• From Argentina: Some preliminary lessons from a collaborative project with think tanks around the world

Public Policy and Organisational Development Collaborations

Additionally, during the first phase the participants were expected to develop plans for collaborative  projects focused on a policy issue or an organisational development challenge or opportunity.

Originally, the proposal and project envisaged collaborative research projects (the paragraph above has been edited). However, during the first meeting in Lima it was agreed that these collaborations could also include activities, learning together, the implementation of a reform, or even developing and benefiting from shared capacity building efforts.

These plans were reviewed and finally approved by the Steering Committee at the end of the first year (mid-2014). Successful applicants received research funds (about USD8,000 per researcher depending on the plans) to undertake the projects which started at the beginning of the second year.

These collaborations involve at least 2 different think tanks and culminate in high quality project, research and communication outputs. Each participant can engage in more than one collaboration but he or she must make sure that they have sufficient time and funds for this.

As an illustration, below are some examples supported by the Think Tank Fund that served as the inspiration for the collaborations. These involved larger research teams than the ones expected in these collaboration but the choice of policy issues and the nature of the teams should provide an inspiration:

• The Peace Institute (Slovenia) and Universidad de la Tierra from Oaxaca (Mexico): Project – Transcontinental Cooperation in Addressing Labor Conditions and Labor Relations in the Times of Economic Crisis and Social Reforms.
• demosEUROPA (Poland) and Singapore Institute of International Affairs (SIIS): Project – Going Global in the Age of Uncertainty.
• Institute of Public Affairs (Chile) and Global Consortium on Security Transformation (Poland): Project – Public Participation and Civic Involvement: Responses to Deficits of Democracy in Europe and Latin America.
• RiskMonitor (Bulgaria) and Scientific Vortex Group (Colombia): Project – Understanding the Structure of Transnational Criminal Networks operating in the U.S./Mexico Border and The Southeastern Border of The European Union

The projects that the participants have chosen are:

Strengthening communication capacity of think tanks through mapping and comparison (Communications)

This project involves:

View a presentation of the project: