Read on Twitter
1. Short thread on getting a Scottish international affairs think tank off the ground: Scottish Global Forum (SGF) generated huge interest in 2012 when we launched, here + overseas. But for all our research, media work + speaking invitations... https://twitter.com/KirstyS_Hughes/status/1331900118619082755
2. ...we never managed to raise money to pay salaries + rent so that the project could be built properly. There was huge support for a Scottish int’l affairs think in Scotland, up to the level of the ScotGov itself. Lots of invitations to partner, host events, etc. ...
3. But there was always a red line: ‘Short of funding, tell me what we can do to support you’ was a line I heard many times. I felt sure that @KirstyS_Hughes + @SCER_eu would attract financial backing, given Kirsty’s excellence and the quality – and pertinence – of their work.
4. I was saddened to hear that they were unsuccessful in their attempts. It reflects poorly on Scotland, in a variety of ways, that there is such reluctance to fund such a project on the part of those who could easily provide funding.
5. Perhaps it is simply about perseverance and having the key individuals involved having the financial wherewithal to survive whilst they plug away at securing a proper funding package.
6. If the excellent @PeterJa87603295 & @h_lovat choose to take this forward, their challenge is to unlock the door to money. Look at Brookings, and the various foundations that support them. Scotland has such foundations, and rich people aplenty. The money is there...
7....to fund a Scottish international affairs think tank. What I think is required is a weightier, more formal, funding bid, with a list of signatories that overwhelmingly endorses what a valuable intellectual project this is, and how Scotland would be enriched by it.
