Call for Expression of Interest from Think Tanks to take part in the Think Tank Young Professional Development Program
The Think Tank Fund (TTF) of the Open Society Foundations announces a Call for Expression of Interest from Think Tanks to take part in the Think Tank Young Professional Development Program for MA and PhD Graduates.
Human capital is the biggest asset of each and every think tank. In securing reliable and high-quality researchers, think tanks compete with much more powerful competitors, i.e. governments, state agencies, private companies, banks, and consulting companies. The region’s think tanks, therefore, have to devise special motivation strategies to retain existing staff and attract new talented individuals to opt for this career. Despite being present in the public life, think tanks constitute a small part of civil society and are often not the first choice to fresh graduates who are interested in embarking on research/policy careers.
The Think Tank Fund has supported the efforts of think tanks by providing paid internships for returnees – fresh graduates from high-quality universities in the OECD countries -- and fellowships for junior researchers from think tanks in the region to spend up to three months in another regional or Western European think tank in the past several years. With this new initiative, we aim at supporting up to fifteen ‘returnees’ per year to assume posts in think tanks interested in attracting young staff. With these activities, we hope to help young and talented people enter the region’s think tanks, provide additional capacity building with talented returnees getting engaged in policy-relevant research, analysis and advocacy under the guidance of experienced staff, and assist think tanks in recruiting new talent into their ranks.
The Think Tank Young Processional Development Program intends to attract recent graduates of MA and PhD programs in the social sciences and humanities to selected think tanks in Central and Eastern Europe, South Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, giving them an opportunity to gain first-hand policy research and advocacy experience at a renowned think tank in the region. The program is designed to benefit both young returning professionals and their host organizations. It enables participating think tanks to recruit young researchers originally from the region who recently graduated from universities in the OECD countries, including the Central European University in Hungary. Depending on a research topic, individual programs at hosting organizations will last up to 6 months and start from December 2012.
The deadline for submitting an expression of interest from think tanks to host young professionals is July 8, 2012.
For more information on the program and how a think tanks can express interest in engaging a young professions through this program please see the full text of the call. All inquiries and the requested information should be sent by email to ttf_fellowships@osi.hu.