Company lists · Data refreshed September 2026
Top 25 Think tanks and policy research worldwide
RevenueBase identified 1,656 think tanks and policy research worldwide as of September 2026 and tracks 36,794 professional contacts across them, including 8,751 with verified work emails. The United States is the largest market and New Delhi the largest hub.
This list covers think tanks and policy research worldwide, matched on what each company actually does as described in its own words. Ranked by team size, largest first. Every row shows the company's own description, its RevenueBase Smart Search rating, and when it was last checked. Data refreshed September 22, 2026. Country and city lists for think tanks and policy research follow the table.
Published by RevenueBase, a B2B data infrastructure company. This list was built with RevenueBase Smart Search, the natural-language company search RevenueBase customers use to build their own targeted lists and unlock verified emails and direct dials at the companies on them. How these lists are built and judged.
The 25 largest think tanks and policy research worldwide
Ranked by team size| # | Company | Contacts | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2,660 contacts → | ||||
Partial evidence “RAND is a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization that provides leaders with the information they need to make evidence-based decisions.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 22, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 2 | 937 contacts → | ||||
Strong evidence “The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) is a bipartisan, nonprofit policy research organization dedicated to advancing practical ideas to address the world’s…” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 22, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 3 | 867 contacts → | ||||
Indirect evidence “The mission of Chatham House is to be a world-leading source of independent analysis, informed debate and influential ideas on how to build a prosperous and secure world for all.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 22, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 4 | 770 contacts → | ||||
Strong evidence “Who we are: The American Enterprise Institute is a public policy think tank dedicated to defending human dignity, expanding human potential, and building a freer and safer world.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 22, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 5 | 695 contacts → | ||||
Strong evidence “Founded in 1973, The Heritage Foundation is a research and educational institution-a think tank-whose mission is to formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the…” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 22, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 6 | 313 contacts → | ||||
Indirect evidence “The Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) is a unique institution, founded in 1831 by the Duke of Wellington, RUSI embodies nearly two centuries of forward thinking, free…” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 22, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 7 | 311 contacts → | ||||
Indirect evidence “The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace generates strategic ideas and independent analysis, supports diplomacy, and trains the next generation of scholar-practitioners to…” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 22, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 8 | 285 contacts → | ||||
Partial evidence “Set up in 1990, ORF seeks to lead and aid policy thinking towards building a strong and prosperous India in a fair and equitable world.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 22, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 9 | 243 contacts → | ||||
Strong evidence “The Stimson Center promotes international security and shared prosperity through applied research and independent analysis, global engagement, and policy innovation.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 22, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 10 | 237 contacts → | ||||
Partial evidence “Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 22, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 11 | 227 contacts → | ||||
Strong evidence “Thailand’s most respected economic think-tank with 30 years of policy research experiences.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 22, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 12 | 222 contacts → | ||||
Strong evidence “Hudson Institute is a research-focused public policy think tank headquartered in Washington, DC, dedicated to promoting American leadership for a secure, free, and prosperous…” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 22, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 13 | 222 contacts → | ||||
Strong evidence “RAND Europe is a not-for-profit research institute whose mission is to help improve policy and decision making through research and analysis.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 22, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 14 | 221 contacts → | ||||
Strong evidence “Founded in Brussels in 1983, the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) is among the most experienced and authoritative think tanks operating in the European Union today.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 22, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 15 | 215 contacts → | ||||
Strong evidence “The Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy is an independent think-tank doing legal research to make better laws and improve governance for the public good.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 22, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 16 | 213 contacts → | ||||
Partial evidence “Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER /) was established on September 1, 1976 by Dr.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 22, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 17 | 207 contacts → | ||||
Strong evidence “CSTEP is one of India’s leading think tanks, with a mission to enrich policymaking with innovative approaches using science and technology for a sustainable, secure and inclusive…” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 22, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 18 | 180 contacts → | ||||
Partial evidence “NCAER is India's oldest and largest national, non-profit, economic research institute.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 22, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 19 | 170 contacts → | ||||
Partial evidence “Capita is an independent think tank and community.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 22, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 20 | 165 contacts → | ||||
Indirect evidence “CEPR is an independent, non‐partisan, pan‐European non‐profit organization.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 22, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 21 | 163 contacts → | ||||
Strong evidence “The Committee for Economic Development of Australia is an independent, membership-based think tank investigating the key economic and social issues shaping public policy.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 22, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 22 | 157 contacts → | ||||
Partial evidence “Who We Are: The Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs is the hub of Harvard Kennedy School's research, teaching, and training in international security and…” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 22, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 23 | 155 contacts → | ||||
Partial evidence “The Geostrata is an independent Indian think tank standing for a distinctly Indian take on world affairs.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 22, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 24 | 142 contacts → | ||||
Indirect evidence “The Institute for Fiscal Studies was founded in 1969.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 22, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 25 | 142 contacts → | ||||
Strong evidence “The Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis (KIPPRA) is an autonomous institute whose primary mission is to conduct public policy research leading to policy advice.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 22, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
RevenueBase Smart Search
RevenueBase Smart Search assesses information from a company’s LinkedIn profile, information supplied directly by the company, its website, and other publicly available sources. It uses that information to rate how closely the company relates to this list’s category: think tanks and policy research. Every row carries its rating and the description the rating was read from, so each one can be checked rather than taken on trust.
- Strong evidence
- The company's own public description of its business names think tanks and policy research.
- Partial evidence
- Its own public description names part of think tanks and policy research, so it works in or next to the category without describing itself that way.
- Indirect evidence
- The description shown does not name think tanks and policy research. The match rests on the rest of the company's public profile rather than the one sentence quoted here, so this is the rating to check first.
RevenueBase Smart Search is how these lists are built: RevenueBase's data engine and AI assemble the companies that match a category defined in a user's own words, so a list can be about what companies actually do rather than about whichever industry code they were filed under.
Showing 25 of 1,656 think tanks and policy research worldwide
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Think tanks and policy research worldwide at a glance
As of Sep 22, 2026Companies by employee count
Email recency is reported on each country list linked below.
How this list was built
Company categories are rarely black and white. RevenueBase reads each company's own description of its business to decide whether it belongs among think tanks and policy research, so some rows will be adjacent to the category rather than pure plays. The description and RevenueBase Smart Search rating on every row are there so you can check each match yourself.
- Source
- The RevenueBase company graph: 60 million companies and 398.9 million professional contacts resolved from primary sources, queried with RevenueBase Smart Search, the natural-language company search available to every RevenueBase user.
- Coverage
- Every country. Country and city lists for think tanks and policy research are linked below.
- What qualifies
- Companies worldwide whose own description of what they do matches “think tanks and policy research”. Matching reads each company's description, not its industry code or its name.
- RevenueBase Smart Search
- RevenueBase Smart Search is how this list is assembled and how each row is rated. RevenueBase's data engine and AI assess a company's LinkedIn profile, information supplied directly by the company, its website and other publicly available information, then relate it to a category defined in a user's own words. Each row is rated strong evidence (its own description names think tanks and policy research), partial evidence (it names part of the category) or indirect evidence (the description shown names none of it and the match rests on the rest of the company's profile). The description supporting each rating is quoted on the row.
- What we exclude
- Companies whose own description does not clearly place them among think tanks and policy research, and records with no verified work email.
- Match quality
- In blind human judging of this matching method, 86% of matched companies were on target. Expect roughly 1 in 7 rows to be adjacent to the category rather than a pure play. Every row shows the company's own description and its RevenueBase Smart Search rating so you can judge each match yourself. Read the full methodology: how the lists are built, how the judging worked, and what the figure means.
- Ranking
- Team size, largest first: companies are ordered by the number of professionals RevenueBase tracks at each one. Employee ranges shown are reported bands, for context.
- Verification
- Every listed company carries at least one verified work email, 8,751 across the full list. Contacts re-verify on a rolling cadence, and each contact's own verification date is shown inside RevenueBase.
- Refresh
- This page's figures were pulled from the company graph on September 22, 2026. Lists refresh periodically as the graph is re-checked.
- Corrections
- Wrong category, wrong headquarters, or a company that has closed? Use “Report an issue” on any row. Reports go to the RevenueBase Data Team and feed back into the company graph.
Think tanks and policy research by location
9 lists · largest firstEvery Think tanks and policy research list RevenueBase publishes, by country and city. Counts are matching companies in each list as of its own refresh date.
Countries
- Think tanks and policy research based in the United States224
- Think tanks and policy research based in India163
- Think tanks and policy research based in the United Kingdom77
- Think tanks and policy research based in France45
- Think tanks and policy research based in Germany43
- Think tanks and policy research based in Australia34
- Think tanks and policy research based in Canada29
- Think tanks and policy research based in Italy26
- Think tanks and policy research based in Belgium25
Frequently asked
What is RevenueBase Smart Search?
RevenueBase Smart Search is how RevenueBase decides which companies belong on this list and how strongly each one fits. Its data engine and AI assess a company's LinkedIn profile, information supplied directly by the company, its website and other publicly available information, then relate it to the category the list is about. Each row is rated strong evidence when the company's own description names think tanks and policy research, partial evidence when it names part of the category, and indirect evidence when the description shown names none of it and the match rests on the rest of the company's profile.
How many think tanks and policy research are there worldwide?
RevenueBase identified 1,656 think tanks and policy research worldwide as of September 2026, matched on each company's own description of what it does rather than its industry code.
What is the largest company on this list?
RAND, headquartered in Santa Monica, tops this list with the largest team on record.
Which country has the most think tanks and policy research?
The United States leads with 224 companies, followed by India (163) and the United Kingdom (77). Every think tanks and policy research list by country and city is linked on this page.
Which city has the most think tanks and policy research?
New Delhi leads with 63 headquartered companies, followed by Washington (55) and London (50).
How do I get contact information for these companies?
A free RevenueBase account lets you run this exact search and work the top results, verified emails and direct dials included. Upgrading unlocks all 8,751 verified decision-maker contacts tracked across these 1,656 companies.
How current is this list?
The list refreshes periodically as the company graph is re-checked. This page's figures were pulled on September 22, 2026.
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About this data
RevenueBase is a B2B data infrastructure company. Its company graph covers 60 million companies and 398.9 million professional contacts, with emails verified on a rolling cadence rather than scraped once and left to decay. These company lists are generated directly from that graph with RevenueBase Smart Search, the same natural-language company search every RevenueBase user has: describe a market in plain words, get the companies that match, and add verified emails and direct dials for the people at them. It is the same data that powers RevenueBase's B2B data products, and a free account includes 500 credits to start. How these lists are built and judged.