Atlas Network is excited to announce the launch of the Global Voices for Open Trade project

[ARLINGTON, VA – June 27, 2019] Atlas Network is delighted to announce that the John Templeton Foundation has made a three-year, $2.34 million grant in support of Atlas Network’s Global Voices for Open Trade project, which will provide research and advocacy support for Atlas Network’s partners around the world who are engaged in the promotion of free and open trade policies.

“For decades it appeared the debate surrounding free trade was settled in favor of freedom,” said Brad Lips, Atlas Network’s Chief Executive Officer. “Unfortunately, we have seen an alarming rise in anti-trade rhetoric and economic protectionism in recent years. We are grateful to the John Templeton Foundation, whose vision is enabling Atlas Network to make a global investment in the critical role of trade in achieving prosperity.”

During the three years of the program, Atlas Network will launch a competitive grant program that will make six grants of $32,000 per year to Atlas Network partners for research and education projects designed to quantify the benefits of unilateral free trade policies and/or targeted reforms on the local economy. Projects can include research and dissemination efforts, media outreach that increases local understanding of free trade, and research that quantifies a nuanced perspective on the consequences of trade. Applications for the first grant cycle, which is restricted to Atlas Network partners, must be received by August 15.

Grantees selected for the Global Voices for Open Trade program will participate in Atlas Network’s annual Global Trade Collaboratories in New York City, where grantees and trade experts will engage in a facilitated, multi-day experience to boost their project’s chances for success.

“We invite creative, visionary thinking on how best to advance a free trade agenda,” said Casey Pifer, Atlas Network’s Director of Institute Relations. Pifer’s team, which will be reviewing the proposals, welcomes projects that tackle one or more of the following:

• Quantify the net benefits of unilateral free trade policies, particularly in relation to communities living in poverty
• Target the media, political class, grassroots, and trade authorities with a compelling message of economic success via free competition
• Identify and tell stories of the elite beneficiaries and disenfranchised victims of cronyism and corrupt trade policies, as well as the stories of those who benefit from free trade
• Quantify the effects of developed countries’ domestic subsidies on specific low-income economies in developing parts of the world.

“As our global partners focus on changing public policy in favor of free trade, Atlas Network will help them create tools that can improve the way journalists and policymakers consider this issue,” said Atlas Network President Matt Warner. “Our aspiration is to help our partners achieve lasting changes in trade policy and media that demonstrate increased openness and freedom.”

For additional information or feedback on proposed projects, contact Casey.Pifer@atlasnetwork.org or Vale.Sloane@atlasnetwork.org, or visit AtlasNetwork.org.

About Atlas Network

Atlas Network advances opportunity and prosperity by strengthening a global network of independent civil society organizations that promote individual freedom and remove barriers to human flourishing. We cultivate a network of partners—currently, more than 490 in 90 countries—that share a vision of a free, prosperous and peaceful world where the rule of law, private property, and free markets are defended by governments whose powers are limited.

Atlas Network’s vision is to create greater opportunity for individuals to use their talents freely and contribute to increasing levels of peace, civility, and prosperity, and we invest in civil society organizations that are working toward a free society. Through our unique “Coach, Compete, Celebrate!” model, we provide training and mentorship designed to improve the efforts of free-market organizations, and we encourage friendly competitions that elevate performance and celebrate achievement. Our Doing Development Differently initiative is helping our partners to advance, implement, and market locally-grown solutions to poverty that improve established measurements of economic freedom, and regional centers in Latin America, Africa, and the United States and Canada are focusing international attention on the political, social, and economic challenges of free-market reforms.

About the John Templeton Foundation

The John Templeton Foundation serves as a philanthropic catalyst for discoveries relating to the deepest and most perplexing questions facing humankind. The John Templeton Foundation supports research on subjects ranging from complexity, evolution, and emergence to creativity, forgiveness, and free will encouraging civil, informed dialogue among scientists, philosophers, and theologians, as well as between such experts and the public at large. In all cases, the John Templeton Foundation’s goal is the same: to spur curiosity and accelerate discovery. Through a wide range of media—print, digital, broadcast, and film—the John Templeton Foundation seeks to raise awareness about cutting-edge discoveries in ways that are clear and thought-provoking, funding programs that help teachers, journalists, religious leaders, and other professionals apply these discoveries in ways that enrich and extend their work.