How to Apply
The TFA program complements Atlas’s traditional work: advising and investing in the most promising young think tanks; honoring excellent work through programs such as the Sir Antony Fisher International Memorial Awards; and organizing creative efforts to enhance the impact of important new scholarship on liberty.
As the largest international award program for think tanks, the TFA program was launched in September 2003 thanks to a generous donation from the John Templeton Foundation. Since that time, Atlas has presented multiple awards to outstanding think tanks working to improve the public understanding of freedom. Last year, Atlas has given out 16 different Templeton Freedom Awards for Excellence in Promoting Liberty of $10,000 each. The winners were selected from 170 applications from 58 countries.
Atlas is now accepting nominations for 2009 in 8 different categories:
- Solutions to Poverty – recognizing outstanding research and innovative projects addressing how sound economic and legal institutions can solve problems of poverty.
- Ethics & Values – recognizing outstanding research and innovative projects concerning the relationship between free enterprise and the ethics, values, and character that sustain it.
- Student Outreach – recognizing outstanding work by think tanks to improve education about freedom.
- Social Entrepreneurship – recognizing outstanding research and innovative projects on social entrepreneurship to benefit the poor, increased cooperation among think tanks, the private sector organizations for the free society; and general building of a sound, strong, civil society.
- Initiative in Public Relations – recognizing non-profit research institute that have demonstrated outstanding success in effectively communicating the ideas of a free society.
- Innovative Media Award – recognizing outstanding think tank projects that use film or multimedia technologies to promote the principles of a free society.
- Award for Special Achievement by a University-Based Center – recognizing outstanding projects and achievement by university-based centers in promoting liberty.
- Award for Special Achievement by a Young Institute – recognizing out-standing performance by an institute that is less than five years old. One winner will be chosen from a developed country, and another one from a more difficult part of the world.
Two winners will be announced in each category: One prize will be given to an “established institute” (older than 8 years), and one to an “emerging institute” (8 years or younger). The one exception is in the Young Institute prize, explained above, which is restricted to think tanks less than 5 years old. Each winner will receive $10,000.
To Apply: The application deadline was May 31, 2009. For next year’s deadline, please check back. Please fill out and submit the nomination form to Yiqiao Xu via e-mail at tfa2009@atlasnetwork.org. You can submit the supporting material either via e-mail or by post to:
Atlas Economic Research Foundation
Attn: Ms. Yiqiao Xu
1201 L Street, NW, 2nd Floor
Washington, DC 20005
We encourage you to submit supporting documents as attachments to your nomination, although these are optional. Previous winners may nominate a different project in the same or in a different category. You may nominate in more than one prize category with different projects, but you will be restricted to win no more than one prize per year. You can nominate only one project in any given category.
Prize Announcement: Winners of 2009 Templeton Freedom Awards will be announced at the TFA event on November 9, 2009, at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington D.C. prior to the Atlas Freedom Dinner.
Questions? Contact Director of Programs, Yiqiao Xu at 202-449-8449/tfa2009@atlasnetwork.org.
See PDF of 2009 How to Apply flier.
