The first institute, based in London, was founded in 1986 by journalist Jon Tinker. Tinker had been working with the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), where he ran the Earthscan programme, focused on providing unbiased, scientific data to journalists covering environmental issues. Tinker identified the need to develop resources helpful in providing information and data on a range of issues that directly affect the most marginalized voices in the developing world, to help those voices be heard, and help bridge the communications' divide. Between 1991 and 2004, Jon Tinker also founded Panos Institutes in Paris, Washington D.C., Budapest and Vancouver, Canada.