The Grattan Institute knows its stuff and just ask Australian researchers about water

The Australian Institute for International Affairs is the leading ANZ policy shop in the new ranking from Uni Pennsylvania’s Think Tanks and Civil Societies Programme.

But the top spot in the Pacific palls when presented on the global list of 174 institutions. The AIIA is 71^st in the world, followed by the Lowy Institute for International Policy (76^th) and the Centre for Independent Studies (118^th).

The Australian Strategic Policy Institute is 11^th on the global list of defence research, the NZ Centre for Strategic Studies is 64th and the Commonwealth Government supported Institute for Regional Security is 104^th.  ASPI is also 33^rd on the foreign policy list, followed by Lowy (55^th). Lowy also rates on the science and technology list (60^th).

The Grattan Institute ranks 56^th in the world for domestic economic policy and 41^st on education. It is also 41^st on the health policy list and 47^th for social policy.

Australia is best represented on the water security policy ranking, where Griffith U’s Australian Rivers Institute is number one in the world, followed by the Centre for Water Economics (ANU) 9^th, the CRC for Water Sensitive Cities (16^th), CSIRO (25^th), La Trobe U’s Centre for Water Policy Management (31^st) and UNSW’s Water Research Centre and Global Water Institute (33^{rd and 34th}). The International Water Centre (48^th) also at Griffith U is the last local institution among the global top 74.