Alternate Solutions Institute Receives $100,000 Grant from the Atlas Economic Research Foundation
by Malik Muhammad Arif
March 26, 2008
The Atlas Economic Research Foundation announced that the Alternate Solutions Institute (Lahore, Pakistan) is the only Middle Eastern think tank among its first class of recipients of Dorian & Antony Fisher Venture Grants. More than 180 think tanks competed for the grants in this program, but only nine were selected to receive up to $100,000 from Atlas over the next three years:
· Alternate Solutions Institute (Lahore, Pakistan)
· Bluegrass Institute for Public Policy Solutions (Kentucky, USA)
· Canadian Constitution Foundation (Calgary, Canada)
· Cathay Institute for Public Affairs (Beijing, China)
· Fundación Ecuador Libre (Guayaquil, Ecuador)
· Fundación F. A. von Hayek (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
· IMANI: Center for Policy and Education (Accra, Ghana)
· Istituto Bruno Leoni (Turin, Italy)
· New Economic School (Tbilisi, Georgia)
Khalil Ahmad, the founding director of the Alternate Solutions Institute, remarked: “It has been noted that, at a suitable temperature, an egg changes into a chicken, but no temperature can change a stone into a chicken. Likewise, I believe that – while U.S. government’s support of a dictator can never change a stone into a chicken – Atlas’s support of nascent think tanks, such as this Fisher Venture Grant to ASI, may enable a change in the public policy debate in Pakistan.”
Atlas established the Fisher Venture Grants program in January 2008 to recognize and assist think tanks that represent “great investments” for the future. Grantees are younger institutes with a track record that suggests a strong potential for improving the climate of ideas among their target audience.
Alejandro A. Chafuen, Atlas’s President & CEO remarked, “Independent think tanks can play a crucial role to ensure that public policy debates are not dominated by government insiders. The Cathay Institute in China is playing an important role by educating people about the virtues of limiting government, so that individual initiative and free enterprise can flourish.”
The Fisher Venture Grant program honors the memory of Atlas’s late founders, Sir Antony Fisher and his wife Dorian. The couple established the Atlas Economic Research Foundation, because they believed that investments in emerging think tanks could be extremely cost-effective, especially when complimented with mentoring to further improve those think tanks’ prospects for long-term success.For this reason, Atlas structured the Dorian and Antony Fisher Venture Grants program to provide funding to think tanks over a three-year term, during which time Atlas will be in frequent contact to help develop plans and to monitor performance. Half of the grant is structured as a “matching program,” providing strong incentives for think tanks to attract new local supporters for their important work.
Founded in the United States in 1981, the Atlas Economic Research Foundation (http://www.atlasusa.org) develops and strengthens a worldwide network of independent think tanks.
Tags: Atlas’s President , United States , Atlas Economic Research F , Independent Think Tanks
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