The Think Tank Fund of the Open Society Institute aims to support independent policy centers that strengthen democratic processes in their countries by identifying and analyzing policy options, consulting with the government and advocating their recommendations, involving stakeholders outside government circles in policy debates, and making their findings widely available to the public. The Think Tank Fund fosters institutions that carry out nonpartisan policy-relevant research and promote inclusive policy change.
"Inclusive policy change" refers to a policymaking process that is open, transparent, and responsive to the public interest. The Think Tank Fund pursues this mission through two distinct grantmaking programs in support of independent, multithematic policy centers active in various social and political areas. The fund complements its grantmaking with a series of activities aimed at capacity building of its grantees.
The Think Tank Fund has emerged from a variety of grants administered by the Human Rights & Governance Grants Program (HRGGP) in Central and Eastern Europe, the South Caucasus, and the former Soviet Union (excluding Russia and Central Asian Republics). These grants to various think tanks were administered on behalf of the OSI board, president, and policy advisory board up to 2005.
Originally an integral part of HRGGP, the fund has evolved into an independent grantmaking program. The fund draws on specific country-by-country funding strategies based on needs assessment, cooperation with Soros foundations, and careful selection of potential grantees. Gradually expanding its geographical scope over the last two years, the fund has reached a consolidated portfolio of more than 30 grantees in some 15 countries.
View the Think Tank Fund strategy for 2008-2010.
Thomas Carothers, Chair
Thomas Carothers is Director of the Democracy and Rule of Law Project at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a research project that analyzes the state of democracy around the world and efforts by Western actors to promote democracy abroad. Widely recognized as a leading international authority on democracy promotion, Carothers has worked on democracy assistance projects for many public and private organizations and carried out extensive field research on democracy-building programs in Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. He is the author or editor of seven books on democracy and rule of law promotion, including most recently Promoting the Rule of Law Abroad: In Search of Knowledge (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2006). He previously worked as an attorney at Arnold & Porter in Washington and at the Office of the Legal Adviser of the U.S. Department of State. Carothers is a graduate of Harvard Law School, the London School of Economics, and Harvard College.
Thomas C. Heller
Thomas C. Heller is Chair and Lewis Talbot and Nadine Hearn Shelton Professor of International Legal Studies at Stanford Law School and Co-Director of the Rule of Law Program. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for International Studies. His teaching and research focus on law and international political economy, the effects of globalization on economic law, and multinational investment in developing countries. Heller has worked extensively on the international law and economics of climate change with numerous organizations, including the Business Council for Sustainable Development. He has contributed to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Special Reports and the Third Assessment Report, and is the author of a variety of articles on taxation and public finance, law and development, and legal theory. Before moving to Stanford in 1978, Heller was a member of the faculty at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and was Jean Monnet Professor at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy. He holds degrees from Princeton and Yale.
Marta Ruedas
Marta Ruedas is Deputy Assistant Administrator and Deputy Regional Director for the Regional Bureau for Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States in the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). Her experience spans four of the five regions covered by UNDP: Asia and Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, and Eastern Europe and the CIS. In this last region, she has worked in Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, and, most recently, in Bulgaria, where she was UNDP's Resident Representative and the UN's Resident Coordinator from 2001 to 2003. She has worked consistently on issues related to local governance and decentralization, lately linking it to transition issues. Ruedas was born in Madrid, Spain. She holds a Master’s degree in international political economy from Columbia University. She is fluent in Spanish, Russian, English, French, and Portuguese.
Violetta Zentai
Violetta Zentai has worked as Project Manager at OSI’s Local Government and Public Service Reform Initiative since 2004. She has also supported the work of the International Policy Fellowships Program and collaborated with the Network Women’s Program in various capacities. She has been Acting Director of the Center for Policy Studies at Central European University (CEU) since 2001 and Director since 2003. She is a visiting lecturer in CEU’s public policy and social anthropology programs. Zentai is also the spokesperson for the Foundation for the Women of Hungary. Recently her research and capacity building projects have focused on democratic governance and decentralization, gender equality, and cultures of capitalism in post-socialist transformations. Her recent publications include: “Gender Equality Policy or Gender Mainstreaming: The Case of Hungary” in Policy Studies (with Andrea Krizsan, 2006); “From Civil Society Development to Policy Research” (with Andrea Krizsan) in Stone, D. and Maxwell, S., eds, Global Knowledge Networks and International Development (Routledge, 2005); and Faces of Local Democracy (co-editor, with Gabor Soos; OSI-Budapest, 2005).
