The Public Policy and Management Institute (PPMI) is one of the leading public policy research bodies in the Baltic region. From 2001 onwards, the Institute's interdisciplinary research and policy papers provided rationale and baseline for several reforms of the Lithuanian public service provision systems (e.g., higher education and R&D, public administration, economy, labour market training, vocational education and training).
The Institute's research can be broken down to the following three main types:
- Research of various social and economic phenomena trying to identify the causes of emerging problems in the society, determine the main alternatives for possible government action to solving them, evaluate these alternatives and choose the best one;
- Analysis of benefits and outputs of public policy programmes and various regulative, financial, public service provision as well as income maintenance measures implemented by public administration institutions;
- Analysis of public administration and public service provision systems aimed to increase efficiency and social justice of these systems.
PPMI has analysed the following public policy areas: higher education, R&D, innovations, labour market, social security, business and industry, agriculture development, regional development, transport, environment and other. But has also been carried out in such horizontal public policy themes as equal opportunities and social inclusion, sustainable development, regional development, information society, emigration control, transfer of quality management principles to public administration and public service institutions, creation and management of technical assistance schemes and other areas.
The Institute's clients include both national public administration bodies and international actors (e.g. European Commission's Directorate General Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, European Commission's Delegations in various third countries, UNDP, etc.). Based on the success and recognition in the domestic market the PPMI has developed an internationalisation strategy.
The key advantages of the PPMI are solid academic background and in-depth practical knowledge of economic and social transformation as well as public administrative reforms in Lithuania and elsewhere in the Central and Eastern Europe. In 2008 the Institute had about 30 employees (2/3 of them – researchers, many of them graduates of the internationally recognised institutions such as the London School of Economics and Political Science, the Central European University and others) and a network of free-lancers and partner organisations in Lithuania and in the wider Baltic Sea region.
PPMI is an active member of the
Knowledge Economy Forum. In 2008 The Ministry of Education and Science has provided a status of a private research institution to the PPMI. This brings the PPMI among the very few private entities which have such status in Lithuania. This is also a recognition of the Institute's record in conducting applied research in social sciences (primarily, in the field of public policy).
