On Wednesday, 08 February 2017, Transparify will release its new report on the financial transparency and funding of over two dozen of the UK’s leading think tanks. We will rate these institutions’ funding transparency and track their progress over the past year (see here for our 2016 report). In addition, we will present new data on think tanks’ annual expenditure and staffing levels, providing a unique snapshot of Britain’s policy research and advocacy scene.

The report will feature a special section investigating how deceptive and highly opaque think tanks distort democratic debates and decision-making in the UK. It provides data on their known funding sources (including foreign donors), expenditure, and staffing levels. It also documents numerous incidences in which opaque think tanks have concealed the origin of their funding, advocated policies that favoured their hidden donors, presented flawed evidence, or generated fake news.

Previous Transparify reports have been covered widely in the media, including by the New York Times, Reuters, Financial Times, iNews, and the Guardian. Journalists can contact us via Twitter to request embargoed advance copies. Background information on think tanks, transparency and lobbying, including many cases involving UK institutions, can be found in our four annotated bibliographies.

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