Think Tanks


Think tanks are organizations which perform functions of public policy research, analysis and advice, and typically but not always, are non-profit and act separately from governments and political parties (McGann, 2005).  The make-up of think tanks is that of a divergent mix of size, financing, structure, and breadth of endeavor.  The deliberate roles that facilitate innovation are:

Playing a mediating function between the government and the public that helps builds trust and confidence in public officials;

Serving as an informed and independent voice in policy debates;

Identifying, articulating, and evaluating current policy issues, proposals and programs;

Transforming ideas and emerging problems into policy issues;

Interpreting issues, events and policies for the electronic and print media thus facilitating public understanding of domestic and international policy issues;

Providing a constructive forum for the exchange of ideas and information between key stakeholders in the policy formulation process;

Facilitating the construction of “issue networks”;

Providing a supply of personnel for the legislative and executive branches of government;

Challenging the conventional wisdom, standard operating procedures and business as usual of bureaucrats and elected officials (McGann, 2005, p. 3).

The discussion of think tanks that follows are the Max Planck Institute (Germany) and the Samuel Neaman Institute for Advanced Studies in Science and Technology (SNI) (Israel), ranked in the 2020 Global Go To Think Tank Index Report, Top Science and Technology Policy Think tanks section, first and second place respectively.

The Max Planck Institute is widely diverse in fundamental knowledge research in natural sciences, biological sciences, humanities and social sciences (Beck, 2021).  There are 20 Max Planck Centers in eleven countries worldwide.  The Max Planck Institute is part of one of the largest research collaborations in Europe in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI), called Cyber Valley.  Cyber Valley’s goal is supporting junior scientists in the fields of machine learning, computer vision, and robotics; and advocate the sharing among innovative basic research and application-oriented industrial research, resulting in technology transfer (Beck, 2021)

 

The Samuel Neaman Institute focuses its research on advancement of the State of Israel in the areas of science and technology, industry, schooling and higher education, physical infrastructure, environment and energy, and other topics that are deemed important for the security and strength of Israel (Samuel Neaman Institute Annual Report 2016, 2021).  The 2016 Annual Report is the last publishing online of this artifact.  Specifically, within the Samuel Neaman Institute for Advanced Studies in Science and Technology (SNI) division is the section of Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, and Smart Robotics.  The further development of these domains within Israel are supported and enhanced through private and public investments, advocated by the Israeli government.  The research goals in the Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, and Smart Robotics section is the mapping of these domains in Israeli industry and academia, perform a SWOT analysis in the domains, analysis of strategic plans of leading countries in these domains, and provide findings aiding strategy-making processes of the state of Israel (Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, and Smart Robotics, 2021). 

 

 References

 Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, and Smart Robotics. (2021, March 11). Retrieved from Samuel Neaman Institute for National Policy Research: http://neaman.org.il/EN/Artificial-Intelligence-Data-Science-and-Smart-Robotics

Beck, C. (2021, March 10). Annual Reports of the Max Planck Society - Annual Report 2019. Retrieved from MAX-PLANCK-GESELLSCHAFT: https://www.mpg.de/14964405/2019

McGann, J. G. (2005). Think tanks and policy advice in the US. Foreign Policy Research Institute(3), 4.

McGann, J. G. (2021). 2020 Global Go To Think Tank Index Report. Retrieved from https://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1019&context=think_tanks

Samuel Neaman Institute Annual Report 2016. (2021, March 10). Retrieved from Samuel Neaman Institute for National Policy Research: http://neaman.org.il/EN/Annual-Report-2016-Samuel-Neaman-Institute

 

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