International Growth Centre (IGC) (http://www.theigc.org/) was established in 2008 with funding by the UK government’s Department for International Development (DFID), the International Growth Centre (IGC) aims to promote sustainable growth in developing countries by providing demand-led policy advice based on frontier research. Based in the London School of Economics and Political Science in partnership with the University of Oxford, the IGC directs a global network of over 1,000 world-leading researchers and 15 in-country teams in 14 countries throughout Africa and South Asia. The IGC works closely with partner governments to generate high quality research and policy advice on key growth challenges. In 2014 the IGC refocused to four new research themes (Phase II): States, Firms, Cities, and Energy.

The Mahbub ul Haq Research Centre (MHRC) (https://mhrc.lums.edu.pk/) was founded in 1995 by Dr. Mahbub ul Haq, the pioneer of the Human Development Index and Human Development Reports at the UNDP. MHRC is the flagship centre of social science research at LUMS. It supports interdisciplinary research, scholarship and teaching on issues of human development, social exclusion and inequality across South Asia. Its vision is to co-construct knowledge on critical challenges with a community of scholars, students, practitioners and social actors to bring about transformative change for an inclusive and equitable society.

The Centre for Economic Research in Pakistan (CERP) (http://cerp.org.pk/) was established in 2008 with the aim of filling the gap of evidence based policy planning in Pakistan by economists from Harvard University, University of Chicago, Pomona College and Lahore University of Management Sciences. CERP seeks to bridge the gap by building meaningful engagements between academic research and policy making that inform better policy design. Using established and frontier scientific research techniques to collect and analyze data economists at CERP believe that decision makers can create and implement sound economic and social policies. Their work currently looks at five key thematic areas in Pakistan: Firms and Organizations, Social Policy and Public Goods, Governance and Institutions, Macro Policy and Finance and Public Finance. CERP collaborates with governments, policymakers, civil society, and NGOs to promote the use of rigorous research methodology, accountability, and evidence-based decision-making.

Institute of Development and Economic Alternatives (IDEAS) (http://ideaspak.org/) was established in June 2012 with a vision to strengthen the economic and social foundation of democracy in Pakistan by producing rigorous quality research. IDEAS seeks to capitalize on the new opportunity offered by changing political environment by taking advantage of the greater plurality in the political sphere and by the salience given to provincial and local governments on key policy issues. An important feature of their vision is the commitment to evidence-based research that uses rigorous mixed methods approaches as tools for analysis and to evaluate the impact of interventions and reforms. The research vision places great emphasis on understanding the incentives of politicians and other public policy actors and their accountability to different interests. The four research clusters at IDEAS include Human Development, Fiscal Federalism and Public Finance, Political Economy, Governance and Institutions, and Social Exclusion and Marginalisation.