The history of Transformation Institute dates back to 2009. Our predecessor, the “Hungarian Foundation for Political Economy”, was set up by young economists in 2009 with the aim to give a new impetus to the Hungarian progressive economic policy thinking. The initial objective was to promote education and research in political economy. Over time, the foundation took part in more and more applied policy research, policy drafting and presentation of materials. Our foundation then took a less scientific name, “Progressive Economic Policy Foundation”. The foundation’s work was led by Miklós Sebők, chair of the Advisory Board,  from the beginning, but the members of the Board changed, Gábor Scheiring joined us. As more significant role has been allocated to public appearances, applied research (instead of basic research), training and the creation of a future vision in the work of the Foundation by 2017, we felt an increasing need to give a new look to the renewed content. Transformation Institute was thus born. The institute is supported by the same foundation and the duties of the Advisory Board chair were assumed by Gábor Borsos in 2017. The mission of the Transformation Imstitute is based on the heritage of the most prominent representative of the Hungarian political economy, Karl Polanyi.  The main work of Polanyi, The Great Transformation, inspired the name of the Institute. The leaders of the foundation are young social scientists and public policy experts in the filed of political economy. The institute aims to support progressive social change by using the latest results of scientific research, developing innovative future visions, pilot projects and training in cooperation with the players of the progressive scene.

We are seeking independence from the Hungarian government, so our primary goal is to trace micro- and macro-donors who share our vision and support our organization. Furthermore, we participate in international EU tenders exploiting our existing relationships. We also seek cooperation with Hungarian and international private foundations who share the importance of a progressive social change. We test the most creative and most innovative methods of NGO fundraising, such as fundraising challenge or diaspora fundraising.

We want to thank to the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, the Progressive Hungary Foundation and Solidar for their contribution that helped carry out the studies of our Vision Factory.