Increasing collaboration and
connection between think tanks

Smart Thinking's Membership Network hosts multiple training sessions, webinars and networking events throughout the year to help build the UK think tank community and enable knowledge sharing, pooling of resources and peer-to-peer support throughout the sector.

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Upcoming training

Strategic comms training (part 2)

30 January 2026
9.30am - 1.30pm

Do you work in think tank communications? Do you want to become more strategic in your work? Are you looking for some ideas on how to professionalise and boost the impact of your work? Then this course is for you!

Members £220 (+VAT)
Non-members £395 (+VAT)

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Writing for impact (part 1)

19 February 2026
9.30am - 1.30pm

Want to make your writing more compelling? Understand the fundamentals of good writing? Do you work with data but need to practise how to weave it into a narrative? This training session has all this and more.

Members £220 (+VAT)
Non-members £395 (+VAT)

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TAILORED TO THE THINK TANK SECTOR

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Resources

Latest resources and information for think tanks

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Webinar archive

Take a look at some of our previously held webinars

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Member chat groups

Share knowledge, ideas and views with your fellow members

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MEMBERS ONLY

Upcoming webinars

MEMBER ONLY

How think tanks can use Big Data for research

22 January 2026
11am - 12pm

Big data has changed what’s possible for think tanks but more data doesn’t always mean better data. Paul Swinney, Chief Economist at The Data City, will explore how big data is changing policy research and how to make the most of it.

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MEMBER ONLY

How Chatham House went from broadcasting to strategic communications

24 February 2026
11am - 12pm

David Watson, former Chatham House Communications Director, will discuss how they went from output dissemination to strategic communications, increasing website traffic by 2 million visitors and doubling media hits along the way.

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Latest news

New strategic communications training

A brand new training session was run for the first time in December. Aimed at those working in the communications teams of think tanks, the training is split over two sessions to fully explore the topic. Part 1 looked at the purpose of a comms strategy, defining comms goals, understanding and mapping audiences and developing a strong key message. Part 2 will take place in the new year.

In-person Operations & HR Network meeting

Our Operations & HR Network (one of our most established networks) met in-person just before Christmas for a big meeting covering everything from our new compliance master list that everyone has contributed to, diversity in recruiting, AI policies, salary discussions with staff and many many more.

Active Bystander training

Earlier in the year we ran a series of workshops with the Active Bystander Training company, in response to the recent changes to sexual harassment in the workplace legislation. Rather than each think tank sourcing their own training provider we arranged for several sessions that each think tank could book spaces on depending on staff needs at the time. In November we hosted a further session for new joiners or those who missed the earlier sessions.