Overview

GDI Hub is a research and practice centre driving disability innovation for a fairer world.

Disability innovation is part of a bigger movement for disability justice, which must disrupt current ideas and practice to create new possibilities.

Operational in over 60 countries, we work with more than 70 partners through our AT2030 programme, delivering projects across a portfolio of £50m. GDI Hub has reached 34 million people since its launch in 2016 by developing bold approaches, building innovative partnerships, and creating ecosystems to accelerate change.

CEO Vicki Austin gives an overview of GDI Hub's work, reach and impact during an interview on CNBC news.

For more information about our Academic Research Centre visit the GDI Hub Academic Research Centre UCL site.

Download GDI Hub's four year Disability Innovation Strategy

Timeline

2023

A group of people are photographed together in a conference hall at COSP, they are all dressed smartly and smiling towards the camera. The photograph includes colleagues from GDI Hub, UK Government, WHO and AT scale

2022

Photograph of 4 people at the parliamentary launch of the World Report on Assistive Tech including Penny Mordaunt MP and GDI Hub co-founders Vicki and Cathy

2021

2020

Text reads: Disability Innovation Live. Digital Series

2019

  • We announced the opening of the Snowdon Masters Scholarships with the Snowdon Trust.
  • Cathy Holloway won an East Innovators Award for her work with the GDI Hub.
  • We attended GSMA’s World Mobile Congress (WMC19)in Barcelona.
  • The Minister of State for International Development, Lord Bates, announced at the Sightheist event in London that the UK government was doubling its investment in our flagship AT2030 programme from £10million to £19.8million due to its success.
  • With our Kenyan partners, we launched Africa's First Innovation Ecosystem dedicated to supporting start-ups to develop new Assistive Technology products and services in Nairobi, Kenya.
  • We were part of the Conference of States Parties (COSP) to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in New York, USA.
  • Our AT2030 website went live.
  • We attended GSMA's Mobile 360 – Africa in Kigali, Rwanda.
  • We were part of the Global Report on Assistive Technology (GReAT) consultation summit held in Geneva. Our team contributed to five different papers.
  • We launched the website for the Disability Innovation Summit taking place in Tokyo, 2020. We will be co-hosting this event with the British Council Japan in partnership with Keio University Graduate School of Media Design (KMD) and the Global Cooperation on Assistive Technology (GATE) Initiative.
  • We were part of The Association for the Advancement of Assistive Technology in Europe annual conference (AAATE) in Bologna, Italy. Researchers from GDI Hub and partner organisations including the Clinton Health Access Initiative and ATscale organised a special session focused on sharing the work carried out so far as part of the AT2030 programme.
  • Cathy Holloway had a presentation at the National Conference on Assistive Technology AT2030 held at Bengaluru, India.
  • We welcomed the first cohort of Disability, Design and Innovation MSc students.
  • The East London Inclusive Enterprise Zone (ELIEZ) was announced. It will be the UK’s most accessible technology hub. We are partnering with UCL, Plexal, Here East, and other organisations.
  • Four members of our team took part in the bi-annual International Society for Prosthetics and Orthotics (ISPO) World Congress, their flagship meeting was held in Kobe, Japan.
  • We had AT Procurement workshops in Africa (South Africa) and Central Asia (Tajikistan) with UNICEF, WHO GATE, and CHAI.
  • We held two events to celebrate the International Day of People with Disabilities in Kenya and in Sierra Leone.
Professor Cathy, one of the lecturers, teaching a group of the MSc students around a table

2018

  • GDI Hub move into UCL at Here East offices, UCL's new space that is a unique collaboration between The Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment and the Faculty of Engineering Science
  • GDI Hub are awarded a £10m grant from the UK government to run a three year, multi-partner programme called, ‘AT:2030 – Life Changing Assistive Technology for All’
  • Relationships are formed with Tokyo 2020 to assist in their preparations for the 2020 Paralympic Games and assist their thinking around a legacy from the Paralympic Games in Japan
Presentation of the MSc at the GDI Hub Town Hall

2017

  • Global Disability Innovation Hub (GDI Hub) takes up office space at Plexal in Here East on Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park until UCL at Here East is completed
  • GDI Hub hold their inaugural Disability Innovation Summit on 13th and 14th July to coincide with the World Para Athletics Championships held in London Stadium. The Summit is a massive success with over 80 speakers and 300 delegates from all sectors and all corners of the world
  • Plans for a new Masters MSc course led and awarded by UCL with input from London College of Fashion and Loughborough University London called, ‘Disability, Design and Innovation’ is approved
  • GDI Hub successfully run Enable Makeathon 2.0 with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) hosting a number of teams during the London bootcamp and sitting on the final day judging panel in Delhi
  • Global Disability Innovation Hub C.I.C. a non-profit Community Interest Company is incorporated at Companies House on December 28th to facilitate the non-academic work and functions of GDI Hub
A view of the audience during the Disability Innovation Summit at the HereEast building.

2016

  • A pop-up Hub is curated and delivered in May 2016 at Here East on Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. Over the course of a week, a variety of events, talks and workshops are delivered that test the methodology, thinking and assumptions made regarding what a Hub could and should be
  • On 3rd September 2016, the eve of the Paralympic Games in Rio, The Mayor of London Sadiq Khan publicly launches the Global Disability Innovation Hub to be based at UCL’s new UCL East campus on Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park
Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, standing in front of GDI Hub logo addressing the audience and media at launch event of GDI Hub.

2015

  • The idea of an open and collaborative ‘Hub’ for disability innovation is presented to the founding partners for the first time
  • Partners agree to support a pop-up ‘Hub’ to pilot and test the thinking with partners, stakeholders and local communities
Image shows participants from one of the workshops of the Pop Up event held in May 2016 all standing as a group on a terrace outside Here East.

2014

Image of East Bank in the Olympic Park.

2012

  • London host, ‘the most accessible Games ever’ on a Park and in venues that were designed to be inclusive for all users across both the Olympic and the Paralympic Games
  • London Legacy Development Corporation commit to investing £10m on a Paralympic Legacy programme to deliver opportunities for disabled people and celebrate disability sport, arts and culture
Image shows spectacular fireworks over the Olympic Stadium during the 2012 Games opening ceremony.