In March 2014, FIM and three partner institutions in Eastern Europe received a research grant from the Swiss National Science Foundation's SCOPES program for a joint research project entitled "Cronyism and Nepotism in Managerial Elites in Eastern Europe: Antecedents and Consequences”.

The central aim of the project is to investigate the antecedents of the two forms of favoritism in Eastern European managerial elites, and to provide implications for the effects of nepotism and cronyism. FIM's project partners are the AGENDA Institute in Tirana (Albania), the Institute for Public Policy in Chisinau, (Moldova), and The Institute of Economic Sciences, Banja Luka, (Bosnia and Herzegovina).