Global Tech Advocates launches new global research centre

Global Tech Advocates has launched the Centre for Global Tech Advocacy, a new institute to support a network spanning more than 45 tech hubs and 40,000 advocates worldwide.

The centre is intended to act as a global digital institute, giving more formal structure to a largely volunteer-led network that has operated for 14 years. It was unveiled at the group's summit in Istanbul, following earlier global gatherings in China and India.

Global Tech Advocates was founded to link technology ecosystems across countries through regional hubs and specialist groups. The new centre marks a shift towards building permanent research and measurement functions around that network.

At its core is what the organisation calls the Impact Atlas, a framework designed to gather data from local hubs, field expertise and university collaborations. That work is expected to produce three main outputs: a Public Impact Dashboard, an annual State of Global Tech Advocacy report, and a biannual Global Tech Advocacy Index comparing how technology serves citizens across countries and regions.

The Public Impact Dashboard is meant to provide a live view of the network's activity and reach. The annual report will assess how technology, including artificial intelligence, is serving society, while the index will rank performance across national and regional markets.

The launch comes as industry groups and policymakers face growing pressure to show how artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies affect citizens beyond investment levels, company valuations and research breakthroughs. Through the new centre, Global Tech Advocates aims to create a common set of measures across its international network.

The move also reflects the limits of running a global organisation largely through voluntary effort. The network has expanded across dozens of hubs, bringing together founders, investors and technology executives, but the new institute is intended to provide a more permanent operating base.

Russ Shaw, Founder of Tech London Advocates & Global Tech Advocates, said the launch was intended to give the organisation a longer-term institutional footing.

"For over a decade, Global Tech Advocates has demonstrated that when tech leaders unite around a shared purpose, they create impact far beyond their own organisations. We have reached a scale where our volunteer-led structure has maxed out its current potential. The Centre for Global Tech Advocacy gives this incredible grassroots movement the permanent home, infrastructure, and sustainable financial foundation it needs to thrive for the next ten years and beyond," Shaw said.

Esther O'Callaghan OBE, Lead at the Centre for Global Tech Advocacy and Co-Lead of Tech Netherlands Advocates, said the idea emerged from efforts to document what the network was already doing across its hubs.

"Mapping our network's impact revealed the true scale of what our volunteers were already achieving. The thinking behind the Centre is deeply practical. By formally gathering these insights and structuring them into the Impact Atlas, we are turning local wins into actionable, global data to guide tech growth in a way that genuinely serves society," O'Callaghan said.

Research focus

The centre's model suggests Global Tech Advocates wants to play a larger role in debates about technology policy and public outcomes. Rather than operating only as a connector between startups, investors and local ecosystems, it is moving towards publishing comparative data and research intended to inform civic and policy discussions.

That could put the organisation in a more visible position in conversations about how artificial intelligence should be assessed in practice. Many of these debates are still shaped by national governments, large technology groups and academic institutions. A cross-border network with local chapters could offer a different source of evidence, particularly if it can collect data consistently across markets.

Global network

Global Tech Advocates describes itself as an international grassroots technology network linking more than 40,000 founders, leaders, innovators and investors. Its hubs span some of the world's fastest-growing and most established technology centres, with activity aimed at supporting collaboration and market access across borders.

The new centre is intended to sit above that existing structure rather than replace it. Local hubs and working groups will continue to operate independently, while the institute provides shared systems and a research base for broader international programmes.

That arrangement reflects a challenge faced by many distributed business and technology networks as they expand. Loose structures can support rapid growth, but they often make it harder to gather comparable evidence, fund central operations and present a unified view to policymakers and institutional partners.

For Global Tech Advocates, the Centre for Global Tech Advocacy is designed to address that gap by turning a broad volunteer network into a more formal source of international technology research and measurement.