Update on our work

Current projects

  • The current major focus of our GovernUp project is the Commission for Smart Government which launched in August 2020 and will run for approximately a year. This builds on GovernUp’s report in 2019 Ten reform priorities for the new PM and our earlier work. 

  • Our Global Development Challenge project, sponsored by the Gates Foundation, is investigating the effectiveness of foreign aid in promoting international development. Our first report surveyed the academic evidence on the effectiveness of development aid. Next month we will publish a second report on the history of UK development policy and direction for the future, including priorities for the new department created by the merger of the FCO and DFID.

  • Our Global LGBT Rights and Citizenship project is evaluating how active and engaged citizenship can be enhanced through improved rights for LGBT+ people around the world. We will be publishing our first report later this year. We are also hosting the new Global Equality Caucus which launched in June 2019 at the UN, and which is playing a major role in Safe To Be Me, the UK Government’s forthcoming International LGBT Conference which Nick Herbert is chairing.

  •  Our Planning Change project is considering the radical planning reform needed to enable more homes to be built while maintaining essential countryside protections. The Government’s manifesto set a target of 300,000 homes a year by the mid-2020s, or at least a million more homes, over the next Parliament. Later this year we will publish two papers, one on the importance of good design and a second on self-build, as two routes to help increase housebuilding.

Earlier projects

New projects

We are always interested to discuss ideas for new research projects which are consistent with our mission to produce impartial, high-quality research to inform public debate, offering robust and original policy solutions to promote more efficient government and good citizenship for the benefit of all. 

Please support us 

We are grateful for support towards our research, either for specific projects or to help us cover our core costs. We receive no public funding and rely on donations from individuals and institutions to fund our work. If you would like to make a financial contribution, please contact us, or you can click here to make an immediate secure donation by credit/debit card or PayPal.

We are a registered UK charity and we also have the relevant authorisations to be able to accept funds from the US. If you are a UK taxpayer we can claim Gift Aid on your behalf, increasing the value of your donation by 25 per cent.

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