The Think Tank Initiative is a multi-donor program supported by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Canada’s International Development Research Centre. It is dedicated to strengthening independent policy research institutions- or “think tanks”- in developing countries, enabling them to better provide sound research that both informs and influences policy. The Think Tank Initiative will make a series of multi-year core grants to cover operating and research costs as well as institutional strengthening activities of select promising think tanks in developing countries.  A Call for Expressions of Interest from organizations in East and West Africa, which closed in August 2008, met with an overwhelming response. Independent policy research institutions in 11 participating countries were invited to identify long-term strategies to develop their research agenda, increase their ability to inform and influence policy, and improve key aspects of their organizational performance. Almost 300 applications were received, and 24 African think tanks finally qualified for a combined, multi-year grant of US$ 30 million. The result was announced at Dakar in May 2009.

The next call for Expressions of Interest from South Asian and Latin American think tanks will be issued on 27^th July 2009. The success of the Initiative would lie in supporting locally created development policies that drive positive change in the lives of millions of poor people.

A more detailed email about the Call for applications would follow shortly from our head-office in Canada.

For further queries, please visit http://www.idrc.ca/thinktank/ or contact our Regional Communication Officer, Ms Prabha Sethuraman either on her email:  psethuraman@... or phone: 91-11-2461 9411 extn 7412.