Richard Ďurana Richard is a co-founder of leading Slovak economic think tank INESS – the Institute of Economic and Social Studies. He has been Director since its inception in January 2006 and, as well as undertaking analytical work, has been responsible for fundraising and strategy planning. Despite being perceived as non-profit organizations (which is still a sort of synonym for volunteer in this region), think tanks employ professionals who must be adequately paid to deliver high quality output. At the same time, institutional support (as a complement to project support) is necessary for a think tank’s day to day operational requirements. Richard’s role is to communicate this non-intuitive finding to donors, with a special focus on major prospects.
Richard holds an MSc in organic chemistry and PhD in biochemistry. Prior to working at INESS he was a research scientist at the Institute of Chemistry, Slovak Academy of Sciences, where he worked in developing vaccines.