Dr. Tanya Filer

Founder and CEO of StateUp. A leading expert in public-purpose technology and digital governance, Tanya has worked widely with technology companies, public sector and international organisations, and research institutes across Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East.

Prior to founding StateUp, Tanya founded the Digital State programme at the Bennett Institute for Public Policy, a research unit of the University of Cambridge. She is widely published in academic and media publications, including Wired, NS Tech and Brookings Tech Stream, where she is Contributing Author. A particular focus of her recent work has been on foreign policy dimensions of digital governance issues.

Tanya teaches across several postgraduate programmes at Cambridge, including the MPhil in Public Policy, and has taught at Yale and Oxford. She is also Academic Director of the Internet and Digital Economy Parliamentary Scheme, a year-long programme for MPs in the UK. 

Tanya sits on the Academic Advisory Board of VentureESG and Advisory Board of the Information Law and Policy Centre, School of Advanced Studies, University of London. She has served on the Steering Committee of the Cambridge Trust and Technology Initiative and the Council on the Future of Information and Entertainment at the World Economic Forum. 

Tanya is passionate about “translating” between different parts of innovation ecosystems—government and the technology sector, academic research and policy and industry decision-making—which is a key motivation behind StateUp’s products and services.

Tanya has held fellowships at Harvard, Yale, and the Library of Congress, and was a UK-Israel British Council fellow in Cyber research in 2018. She is a graduate of Oxford, Cambridge, and UCL.

Research Areas
  • Digital government and GovTech
  • International cooperation
  • Innovation ecosystems and digital infrastructure
  • Climate innovation
  • Public-purpose technology
Past Positions
  • Director, Policy Analysis Exercise, MPhil in Public Policy, University of Cambridge (2016–2022)
  • Committee Member, Cambridge Trust and Technology Initiative (2015–2020)
  • World Economic Forum Global Future Council, Information and Entertainment (2015–2017)
Education
  • Ph.D. in Politics, University College London (2010–2014)
  • MPhil in Medieval and Modern Languages, University of Oxford, with Distinction (2008–2010)
  • MA in Modern and Medieval Languages, University of Cambridge, First Class (2004–2008)
  • Collaborative Exchange Scholar, Yale University (2014)
  • Frank Knox Memorial Fellow, Harvard University (2011–2012)

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