Corporate funding of think tanks

0Ross • 5th Jul 2009 • Learning • funding, policy, politics, public life, think tanks

John Blundell, the departing head of the Institute of Economic Affairs writes in today’s Sunday Times of his quest to keep the IEA ‘clean’ through strict donor rules, including:

• No corporate money tied to projects either explicitly or implicitly
• No taxpayer funds
• No FTSE 100 company to give more than 2% of budget [I assume he mean's IEA's budget]
• No corporate sector (eg oil, banking, pharmaceuticals) to give more than 5% [of IEA budget, I assume]

He mentions how he had received offers of tax-efficient funding in return for his extension of scholarships/bursaries to the donor’s progeny (he refused: “Sorry, no deal”). He also thinks that politicians have become more guarded in their dealings with think tanks since 1997.