A collective dedicated to making Peace Tech accessible to those who need it the most — the individuals and organisations working tirelessly in communities around the world to foster peace and change.
Learn More About The PeaceTech Alliance
What is important to us
Through our networks—including the European Union, United Nations, OSCE, and African Union—we connect global influence with local insight. But the most important voices are those of grassroots peacebuilders. Our work centres lived experience, not institutional agendas, and prioritises those too often left out of digital conversations.
We create inclusive spaces where civic actors, technologists, and frontline mediators co-develop PeaceTech strategies that are practical, trusted, and shaped by those most affected. This is how we shift the agenda—from something built for communities to something built with them.
PeaceTech must be usable, not just impressive. Our work is co-designed with peacebuilders, communities, and civil society to ensure tools are understandable, adaptable, and grounded in daily realities. Innovation means little if it excludes the people it claims to serve.
We focus on open-source tools, multilingual resources, and decentralised systems that reflect actual needs. Accessibility is not an afterthought—it’s the foundation of practical peacebuilding. We work alongside those most affected to develop tools they can trust, apply, and shape for their own goals, on their own terms.
Peacebuilders deserve control over the technologies and data that affect them. Our work supports decentralised infrastructure that prioritises local ownership, protects digital rights, and reflects peacebuilders’ lived realities—not just technical requirements.
Austria’s leadership in Gaia-X offers a strong foundation, but real sovereignty comes from collaboration. We co-develop ethical approaches with civic actors and mediators to ensure tools serve communities, not institutions. Data use must be rooted in consent, dignity, and trust. The power to shape, store, and share data must belong to those it impacts most.
Looking outward
Austria has a long tradition of neutrality, dialogue and multilateral diplomacy — from hosting the OSCE and United Nations institutions in Vienna, to decades of quiet mediation work most people never hear about. The PeaceTech Alliance builds on that tradition, creating a trusted, non-aligned space where peacebuilders, researchers, diplomats and technologists can work through the hard questions around technology and conflict, without a single country, company or security agenda shaping the answers.
The Alliance is hosted by the Center for Digital Safety & Security at the AIT Austrian Institute of Technology, which provides a physical base in Vienna and contributes its expertise in digital sovereignty and decentralised infrastructure, including through Austria's coordination of Gaia-X. But the Alliance itself is collectively shaped by universities, peace organisations and not-for-profit partners across the country — its direction isn't set by AIT alone.
Though rooted in Austria's values of neutrality and multilateralism, our outlook is global. We host events like the International Digital Security Forum (IDSF) and take part in the wider peacebuilding and digital governance conversation, working to make sure peacebuilders underrepresented in global tech systems — particularly across the Global South — have a genuine say in the tools built to serve them.
From Vienna to conflict-affected regions worldwide, we're focused on building trust and local ownership, not just deploying technology for its own sake.
activating communities
PeaceTech has enormous potential to support those working on the frontlines of peace. But to realise that potential, we need to reflect on where things aren’t working as well as they could. Too often, tools are developed in ways that don't fully reflect the realities of peacebuilders themselves—leading to solutions that may be innovative in theory, but less effective in practice.
Many initiatives are still shaped by priorities and perspectives from the Global North, while the experiences and insights of those in the Global South remain underrepresented—not just in design processes, but in the data that informs the tools themselves. This creates a disconnect between where PeaceTech is built and where it is most urgently needed.
The PeaceTech Alliance aims to help rebalance that equation. We draw from civic tech values—accessibility, co-creation, and openness—to support peacebuilders as partners in the design and application of technology. By widening who gets to shape PeaceTech, we’re working toward tools that are not only technically robust, but also trusted, grounded, and relevant to the communities they’re meant to serve.
The PeaceTech Alliance is an independent network of universities, peace organisations and NGOs working together across Austria. It is collectively shaped by its participating organisations and is not owned or controlled by AIT.
The Alliance is hosted by the Center for Digital Safety & Security at the AIT Austrian Institute of Technology. AIT provides the Alliance with a physical base in Vienna and invests staff time, expertise and institutional resources in its development. This support helps bring together peacebuilders, researchers, policymakers and technology specialists, while contributing to the responsible development of digital solutions for peace across Austria.
AIT and Gaia-X Hub Austria participate in the Alliance alongside its other member organisations. Through its role as host and active contributor, AIT gives the Alliance the practical foundation, technical capacity and long-term support needed to turn collaboration into action.
Learn more: ait.ac.at/dss | gaia-x.at
The PeaceTech Alliance brings together peacebuilders, diplomats, researchers, civic technology leaders, policymakers and digital specialists from organisations across Austria. Its strength lies in connecting expertise from universities, peace organisations, NGOs and technology institutions to develop a more responsible, practical and people-centred approach to PeaceTech.
This network combines academic knowledge, peacebuilding experience, policy expertise and technical capability, creating opportunities for collaboration across sectors and supporting the development of digital solutions that respond to real peacebuilding needs.
