Since 2008, the independent International Policy Fellowships Network has served IPF partners and clients providing global policy studies education, publications, and leadership. Fellows of the ten-year International Policy Fellowships program (1998-2008) form an alliance of some 250 leaders from over 40 countries. The IPF program was established in 1998 and joined forces with the Central European University Center for Policy Studies when the Center was launched in 1999. Through 2008, IPF supported analytical policy research in pursuit of open society goals such as the rule of law, democratic elections, diverse and vigorous civil societies, and respect for minorities. The highly selective, open-competition fellowships initially focused on nurturing the next generation of open society leaders in former Soviet countries by strengthening their capacities to write evidence-based policy documents, identify appropriate policy instruments, and effectively advocate policies. The fellowships improved the quality of analysis by ensuring that researchers were able to carry out projects in their home regions while maintaining local affiliations and a high degree of mobility and intellectual freedom. Fellows participated in policy seminars over the course of the fellowship year with leading experts in their respective fields and were provided with various training opportunities, mentorships, conference participation funding and organized advocacy events tailored to meet their specific project needs. IPF later grew to support global advocacy-oriented teams of policy researchers with proven policymaking and advocacy experience working on themes of strategic importance. The United Nations selected IPF as a 'good practice' program for achieving global development goals.