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What we’ve learned so far: Reflecting on think tanks in a changing Europe

June 6, 2025 · 47 min

Show notes

After seven candid conversations with think tank leaders across Europe, hosts Goran Buldioski and Enrique Mendizabal come together to reflect on the insights shared in these two seasons of Running think tanks in a changing Europe.

What has surprised them the most? What are the common threads and the striking differences between how leaders from across the region understand their role, their impact, and their future? In this episode, Goran and Enrique delve into the changing political and funding landscape in which think tanks operate, the pressures that come with defending democratic values, and the importance of stepping outside the sector’s intellectual comfort zones.

They also explore what was missing from these conversations, what we still need to better understand about the day-to-day realities of running a think tank in today’s Europe, and what future episodes could explore and uncover.

Join us for this special episode that steps back from the interviews to connect the dots, highlight what we’ve learned, and invite you to listen (or re-listen) to the conversations shaping our understanding of European think tanks today.

This episode is part of a series, Think tanks in a changing Europe, supported by the Open Society Foundations. To listen to the whole series, visit: https://onthinktanks.org/podcast/podcast-series-think-tanks-in-a-changing-europe

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OTT Talks is a platform to share learning among think tanks, funders and other policy actors on a range of topics from think tank governance to communicating research.

Learn more: https://onthinktanks.org/podcast/

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About On Think Tanks:

On Think Tanks works to better understand and support think tanks. We hope that our initiatives and the articles and resources we publish will support think tanks to be more strategic in the ways they make short and long-term decisions; and that this will result in better policy advice and policy outcomes for all.

Read more:

https://onthinktanks.org/on-think-tanks-programme/

Support us:

https://onthinktanks.org/support/

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