The CERGE-EI Foundation has served as the Global Development Network's Regional Network for Central and Eastern Europe since its founding 1999 as a unit of the World Bank.

 

The GDN is a public international organization that supports high quality, policy-oriented, social science research in developing and transition countries. It supports researchers with financial resources, global networking, as well as access to information, training, peer 
review and mentoring.

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Activities

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GDN acts on the principle that well-grounded research produces more informed and inclusive policymaking. It emphasizes that knowledge anchored in local contexts is essential for relevance, that empowering researchers in low- and middle-income countries fosters greater ownership of research, and that evidence-based debate strengthens both democratic accountability and sustainable policy outcomes.

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GDN’s strategy is threefold:

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1. Building research capacity in lower-capacity environments through partnerships with local institutions and open competitive grants.

2. Supporting high-quality, collaborative, and comparative research across geographies and thematic areas of development.

3. Promoting the use of development research by policy makers, practitioners, and civil society to ensure research influence and uptake.​

 

Since its founding in 1999, GDN has engaged researchers and institutions across more than 60 countries, fostering innovation, mentoring, and rigorous research in under-served research ecosystems. It continues to be supported by a global network of regional partners, funding organizations, and institutional collaborators.

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Regional Partners

 

Each Regional Partner plays a significant role in assessing the region's research priorities and develops the basic framework for managing GDN activities.

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The CERGE-EI GDN administrative office actively works to ensure that mailings, e-mailings and web-based information reaches as broad an audience as possible.

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GDN is headquartered in New Delhi, India.

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