‘State of Independent Technology Research 2026’ report released by global coalition of researchers
by Piyush Mathur
The Coalition for Independent Technology Research (CITR)—a globally networked research-support organisation—has released its annual report for Year 2026. Titled State of Independent Technology Research 2026, the report highlights an increase in threats faced by researchers pursuing independent investigations into (and assessments of) technological developments, especially those emanating from the Artificial Intelligence (AI) sector. (These research efforts were independent in that they were not funded by for-profit corporations or governmental agencies.)
While the report notes some successful legal and activist attempts by CITR member researchers at overcoming governmental and corporate hurdles to their research, it also claims that the community has continued to find it difficult to access relevant data. The report also claims that independent research into the AI sector is difficult to pursue owing to a lack of transparency within the AI development sector.
Subtitled Resisting Corporate Capture, the report can be freely accessed via this link:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HsAOPNdLasTx_fR92xMc1TkRzPX4QlBs/view
Key statistics from the report’s findings can be glanced at via this link:
https://independenttechresearch.org/the-state-of-independent-technology-research-2026/
The report includes a plea for donations toward CITR’s work, whose significance for our times is discussed in the document.
The report was shared by Brandi Geurkink with CITR members via email on October 27, 2026. Geurkink has been CITR’s Executive Director since 2024; she was previously Senior Fellow in Policy at the Mozilla Foundation.
The coalition’s is fiscally sponsored by Aspiration, a US-registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit, per the information provided on its website.
Piyush Mathur is a member of the Coalition for Independent Technology Research (CITR). However, he was not involved in any way in producing the State of Independent Technology Research 2026: Resisting Corporate Capture (2026), the document reported on in this article; moreover, this article is not meant to represent anybody’s opinion except his own.