The Government Transparency Institute grew out of diverse research activities and civil society activism of the founder Mihály Fazekas, in particular the Corruption Research Centre Budapest and ANTICORRP. The Institute’s foundation in 2015 was motivated by growing need and opportunity to do independent research and advocacy on transparency, corruption and quality of government in Europe and beyond. The Institute is a non-partisan think tank independent of governments, political parties or special interest groups. It is partially financed by private donations, European research funds, and government contract work. The aim of the Institute is to systematically explore the causes, characteristics, and consequences of low quality of government in an inter-disciplinary approach drawing on political science, economics, law, and data science. The Institute aims to aid citizens to hold governments accountable through the publication of large datasets and robust analysis. The unique research approach builds on Big Data, statistical analysis, and qualitative methods in order to thoroughly analyse micro phenomena as well as understand macro behaviour. Making research findings accessible for the wider public and developing effective policy solutions is at the heart of what we do. We believe, it is only through understanding and precisely measuring government behaviour we can build good government.