Affiliated Researcher at the Bennett School for Public Policy

Dr Tanya Filer is an Affiliated Researcher at the Bennett School for Public Policy, having established and led the Digital State Project at the Bennett Institute for Public Policy, focussed on digital government and the technological capacities of government organisations and policy makers.

Her work focuses on GovTech (government technology) innovation ecosystems, and on digital government more broadly. Amid rapid technological change and deepening inequality, she seeks to understand how governments can better engage digital and emerging technologies, including for improved service provision and more meaningful forms of citizen participation.

Tanya has published numerous articles and chapters including in Information, Communication & Society, International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society, and the edited volume Conspiracy Theories and the People Who Believe Them (OUP, 2019). At the Bennett School she developed the Digital State series, with reports and papers including ‘Thinking about GovTech: A brief guide for policymakers’ (2019) and ‘Digital Minilateralism: How governments cooperate on digital governance’ (2020). She also runs Tech States, the Institute’s interview series featuring leading international voices on government and technology.

Tanya has taught previously at Yale, Oxford and UCL, and teaches executive education to policy makers and business leaders.

In 2018, Tanya was a UK-Israel British Council fellow in Cyber Research. Tanya has been a Frank Knox Memorial Fellow at Harvard University, British Research Council Scholar at the Library of Congress, Collaborative Exchange Scholar at Yale University and Leverhulme Trust Scholar at the Universidad de San Andrés, Buenos Aires. She served from 2016 to 2018 on the Council on the Future of Information and Entertainment at the World Economic Forum and sits on the Advisory Board of the Information Law and Policy Centre, School of Advanced Studies, University of London and Steering Committee of Cambridge’s Trust and Technology Initiative.

Tanya is Founder and Director of StateUp, an insights and advisory firm focused on digital innovation that serves a public purpose. She has worked with organisations including UK Parliament, the Royal Diwan of Oman, and CAF Development Bank of Latin America.