Think 20 (T20)

In 2016 the German government appointed the Kiel Institute and the German Development Institute/Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE) as co-chairs of Think 20 (“T20”)—the international think-tank network of the G20—during the German G20 Presidency in 2017.

The T20 mandate increased the scope of the Institute to convert scientific findings into policy recommendations and strengthened its partnerships with influential think tanks in the G20 countries. Experts from the various research centers at the Kiel Institute led task forces on forced migration, global inequality and social cohesion, and the digital economy. Kiel Institute researchers also contributed to many other policy fields. The new task-force-based T20 process established by the Kiel Institute and the DIE proved to be an effective way of developing concrete policy proposals for the G20.

The Kiel Institute used its co-chairmanship of the T20 during the German G20 Presidency to launch the Global Solutions Initiative (GSI). Providing a long-term framework for international policy advice, the GSI plays an important role in contributing to the policy advisory activities of the Kiel Institute. It brings together leading research institutions and think tanks, representatives from politics, business, and civil society as well as future business-leaders to develop research-based solutions to global challenges and present them to policy-makers. Operating independently, the GSI supports the G20 and other international fora. Thematically, it is partly based on the T20 program under the annually rotating G20 Presidency. Having initiated the GSI, the Kiel Institute now coordinates its research efforts.

When Argentina and Japan succeeded Germany as President of the G20 for 2018 and 2019, its T20 chairs announced their intention to cooperate with the Global Solutions Initiative and to use the G20 Insights Platform to present policy briefs.