REACTOR - Research in Action
is an independent and not-for-profit research organisation (think-tank) based in Skopje, North Macedonia. Our main focus areas are Gender Equality, Youth and Urban Development.
Our work is guided by the vision for gender, socially and environmentally just societies, nationally and globally, where people can live a free, dignified life and actively participate in building a fair and sustainable society.

Our primary focus and core activity is conducting research. Given the lack of available data in policy-making processes at local, national and regional level, one of our main strategic objectives has always been providing relevant, timely and thoroughly researched data to inform the policy processes in our target areas. We act by providing timely and relevant research, proposing evidence-based policy alternatives, undertaking advocacy and actively working with the community, civil society organizations, academic institutions and political actors. We contribute to the processes of policymaking at local, central and regional level through research, advocacy, and furthering debates and discussions on issues that are relevant to Macedonian citizens.
History
Reactor’s beginnings date back to 2004 when the organization’s founders were part of a training and capacity development project for think tanks organized by the European Stability Initiative (ESI) and the Foundation Open Society – Macedonia (FOSM). In 2005, Reactor – Research in Action was formally registered as a civil society organization. In the first four years of our operations, the development strategy of the organization was to strengthen the team’s capacity for performing policy-oriented research.
Following this initial capacity building phase and with the diversification of the funding base for our activities, we have emerged as an independent research organisation (think tank) with identified focus areas and a full-time staff of researchers.
Transparify, an organization that provides an independent rating of the transparency of think tanks worldwide, has been awarding Reactor the highest possible rating of 5 stars for transparency since the assessment was first introduced in 2014 when Reactor was one of the only 21 think-tanks worldwide and the only think-tank in North Macedonia to receive a 5-star rating.
Executive colaborators
Vaska Leshoska
Donors
Reactor is a non-profit organization and our operations are funded through various donor organisations. Our seed funding and our funding up to 2009 was provided by the Foundation Open Society - Macedonia, and we have since diversified our donor base and expanded our sources of funding. Today we collaborate with numerous international donor organizations.

We are committed to a policy of full transparency and to making information about our sources of funding publicly available. On this page you can find out which donor organisations provide funding for our operations and how much they participate in our overall budget. To see the full report on our funding by project (donor)  click here.
In 2016 we won the international Madeleine K. Albright Award awarded by the National Democratic Institute for our critical role in supporting women’s political participation in the country.
In 2014, with our Skopje Raste web project, an initiative aimed at fostering debate about the city’s vision that includes the interests and needs of all of its residents, we won third place in the International Data Visualization Competition organised by On Think Tanks.