COSTECH ranked one of the world's best 2012 S&T global think tanks 

The survey conducted by the International Relations Program under the Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program of the University of Pennsylvania, in the United States of America, ranked the Tanzania Commission for Science and Technology (COSTECH) as one of the top 50 Global Think Tanks under the category of science and technology.

According to Dr. James G. McGann, the Director of the Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program, the report’s publication is the culmination of an eight-month process involving the support of think tanks and experts from every region of the world.

He noted that despite the scope of the project, the rankings are conducted without the benefit of a full time staff or budget, instead made possible with the assistance of a group of research interns from the University of Pennsylvania and other colleges in the Philadelphia area.

More than 1950 experts and peer institutions participated in this year’s ranking process include:
793 expert panelists for all the regional and functional research categories; 150 journalists and scholars with expertise spanning politics, think tanks, and civil society
; 55 current and former directors of think tank programs and networks; 40 public and private donors; 100s of think tanks; 25-30 intergovernmental organizations; and 120 academic institutions.

Dr. McGann reported that he is pleased to highlight the increasingly global reach of the rankings, as reflected in the following statistics regarding this year’s report:
6,603 think tanks from 182 countries were invited to participate in the process.

1,100 plus individuals from 120 countries participated in the nominations and rankings process.

He further said that think tanks were nominated, and subsequently ranked, in 38 categories. 
A total of 1647 think tanks were nominated. A total of well over 57,000 nominations were received across the 38 categories and 171 think tanks were nominated as the world’s top think tanks.

                                       COSTECH Director Genaral, Dr. Hassan Mshinda.

Talking about the ranking process, Dr. McGann noted that each year, the team works to improve the quality of the data collected and the results generated.

He added,” A summary of the changes we have over the last six years is highlighted below. This and last years’ reviews of the process sparked an upheaval of certain aspects of past year’s methodology. In an effort to make the rankings process more democratic and fair, 2012’s process, like 2011’s, began with a call for nominations of think tanks across the thirty eight categories, not relying (as the process had in the past) on Expert Panels for these nominations. At each stage of the process, Expert Panel members were then consulted to verify the legitimacy of each round’s results. By using the Expert Panels as barometers for the data’s accuracy rather than as generators of data, we intend to make the process more democratic and eliminate the influence of any potential biases on the rankings.”

In addition, Dr. McGann noted that this year’s process featured the modification and development of additional categories relative to last year’s ranking. The 2012 Global Go-To Think Tank Index includes both new and altered categories in comparison to the 2011 index.

On the roles of the COSTECH, Dr. Mshinda said that the Commission supervises, promotes and coordinates research, mobilizes, solicits, and disburses research funds, monitors the development and transfer of technology, provides patent and the intellectual property rights information to researchers, scientists, grassroots innovators and the public at large; honors and awards grassroots innovators; nurtures incubation programs, supports cluster development initiatives and at the same time acquires, stores and disseminates scientific and technological information. 

He also noted that efforts to streamline and perfect the process are ongoing, and the program is continually seeking ways to enhance the process.

He calls for stakeholders’ comments and suggestions on how the ranking process might be improved. He further encourages stakeholders to provide the names and contact information for prospective Expert Panel members from functional areas and geographic regions covered by the rankings.

We, at COSTECH are proud of this achievement and we promise to do more in this coming year.

For more information about this article, please visit: http://repository.upenn.edu/think_tanks/7/