I have found a few public lists -here are some that may be useful (thank you Goran, Mahfuz, Reema and Francisco for the additional suggestions):
- NIRA’s World Directory of Think Tanks
- List of US think tanks from Columbia University Libraries
- And a list of think tanks from the Washington Post
- Think Tanks and NGOs from WorldPress.org
- Think Tanks directory from the Harvard Kennedy School Library & Knowledge Services (National and International)
- Muslim think tanks and institutes
- Think tanks in the UK and Europe from the Southampton Solent University (needs to be updated)
- Also UK think tanks from The Guardian’s Thinktanks page
- Another excellent list of think tanks in Europe from the thinktankdirectory.org
- And this one is of think tanks in Germany
- The Think Tank Initiative’s think tanks in Latin America, East and West Africa, and South Asia
- James McGann’s 2010 go to think tanks list
- This is a list of think tanks and other civil society organisations in the Americas
- And another of think tanks studying Latin America from IDEAL and this short one from Francisco Perez for Central America
- Think Tank Watch has an excellent list of think tanks with a description of each -and other useful sources, including a timeline of think tanks
- Policyexperts.org has a long and searchable list of policy experts and policy organisations
- Spero News has a list of think tanks from EUROPE, RUSSIA, EASTERN AND CENTRAL EUROPE, ASIA, NORTH AMERICA, SOUTH AMERICA, AFRICA and the MIDDLE EAST
- Asian Affairs has limited list of think tanks from Asia -but it does cover quite a few countries
- The Swedish South Asia Studies Network has a list of think tanks and other research institutes studying South Asia -including Universities and think tanks from outside the region
- Mahfuz Kabir suggested a few Bangladeshi think tanks missing from the list and Reema Shrestha added these think tanks from Nepal
- The Royal African Society has something that looks like a list of think tanks and research bodies working on Africa in the UK
- The African Economic Research Consortium has a list of affiliated think tank and research centres
- The Open Society Foundation’s Think Tank Fund for Eastern Europe has a list of its grantees and also here for their new response projects
- Also from the CEE, Goran Buldiolski says that “the last comprehensive effort has been made by Freedom House” and PASOS has a large membership that offers another list of centres
If you have any more please let me know.