🔬Practicing Clinicians & Medical SMEs:
Arriving from the Global Trust Challenge 2026 outreach?
Skip the text and head straight to our secure intake, credentialing registry, and forensic failure vault.🔘 Jump straight to the Arête Techne Portal →

• ENTER PORTAL

We build technology that doesn't fall apart, and we help people and communities get comfortable with technology on their own terms. We go slow and fix what others have broken or never bothered to address.Where do you want to start?I'm new here → Start with the book. It's the shortest path to the whole picture.
I'm here to build → The Global Trust Challenge / SME portal
I want to help → Get Involved

The Elucidation of Our Emblem

Every line, cipher, and sentinel within our device maps out our core commitments to the expansion of technological virtue toward the common good.We're sharing this so that we can make sense, and not just to ourselves. Nothing we do is without good cause and deep consideration. It's also a nice wee break from giant blocks of text.

Let's Go!

The Hitherto Ecosystem
Hitherto AI: Overarching Sovereign Intelligence Umbrella.
H-CATT: Independent Non-Profit Digital Public Infrastructure & Safeguarding Arm.
Fathom Lab: Advanced Research & Development (R&D).
Flux Hall Academy: Ecosystem Learning & Development (L&D).
H-CATT Copyright 2026 — Hitherto Center for the Advancement of Technological Trust (H-CATT) & Partners. All Rights Reserved.

Website Terms of Service1. Introduction
Welcome to our website. This website is operated by the Hitherto Centre for the Advancement of Technological Trust (“we”, “us”, or “our”). We are a registered Scottish charity [PENDING] with charity number [PENDING]. Our registered office is at 48 West George Street, Glasgow. By accessing or using this website, you agree to comply with and be bound by these Terms of Service. If you do not agree, please do not use our website.2. Use of the Website
• Permitted Use: This website is intended for personal, non-commercial use to learn about, support, or interact with our charitable purposes.• Prohibited Conduct: You must not use this website to transmit any material that is unlawful, harmful, defamatory, obscene, or malicious. You must not attempt to breach our security or disrupt the website's operation.3. Intellectual Property
All content, logos, text, graphics, and images on this site are owned by or licensed to us. You may view and print pages for your own personal use, but you must not reproduce, distribute, or commercially exploit any content without our prior written permission.
4. Donations and Payments
• All donations made through this website are processed securely.
• If you are a UK taxpayer, you may be eligible to claim Gift Aid on your donation to increase its value. Please review our Gift Aid declaration during the donation process.
• Refunds on donations are only granted in exceptional circumstances or as required by law. Please contact us if an error has occurred.
5. Fundraising and Complaints
We are committed to fair and ethical fundraising practices. If you have a complaint regarding our fundraising activities that we cannot resolve, you may escalate your concern to the Scottish Fundraising Adjudication Panel.
6. Limitation of Liability
While we strive to keep the information on this website accurate and up to date, we provide the site on an "as is" basis. We do not guarantee uninterrupted access or that the site is free from viruses. To the maximum extent permitted by law, we exclude liability for any loss or damage arising from your use of this website.
7. Third-Party Links
Our website may contain links to external websites for your convenience. We do not endorse or take responsibility for the content, privacy policies, or practices of any third-party sites.
8. Governing Law
These Terms of Service, their subject matter, and their formation are governed by and construed in accordance with Scots law. You and we both agree that the courts of Scotland will have exclusive jurisdiction over any disputes.
9. Changes to These Terms
We reserve the right to update these terms at any time. Changes will be posted directly to this page with an updated revision date.
10. Contact Us
If you have any questions about these Terms, please contact us at:
• Email: [email protected]
• Phone: +1 948-888-4024

# H-CATT Volunteer CharterHitherto Center for the Advancement of Technological Trust (H-CATT)Version: 1.0 · **Review date:** 01/11/2026 · Next review: end 2026---## WelcomeThank you for giving your time and your heart to H-CATT. You are part of why this organisation exists, and part of how it grows.This charter sets out, in plain language, what volunteering with us means: what you can expect from us, what we ask of you, and how we work together. It is not a contract of employment. It is a shared understanding, written so that everyone — volunteer and organisation alike — feels clear, welcome, and protected.If anything in these pages is unclear, or if you ever need to talk through what it means for you, use the [Support & Sounding Board] or reach out directly. No question is too small, and no one here will mind you asking.---## 1. Who we areH-CATT is the Hitherto Center for the Advancement of Technological Trust, a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (SCIO), registered and regulated in Scotland. We are a non-profit working at the intersection of technology, trust, and the public good.We are a distributed, international team. Our people work across disciplines, sectors, and time zones. What unites us is not a single location or a shared résumé — it is a shared commitment to the same idea: that technology should be built to be worthy of trust.---## 2. Our north starEverything we do is guided by one principle, applied always and to everything:> Always least harm → greatest good, cross-domain & multi-sector.We hold this in mind whether we are designing a system, writing a document, deciding what to build, or deciding how to treat one another. When a choice is difficult, this is the standard we return to.---## 3. What volunteering means hereVolunteering with H-CATT is:- Freely chosen. You are here because you want to be. No one is required to volunteer, and no one is ever pressured to stay.
- Unpaid. You are not paid for your time. Reasonable, pre-agreed out-of-pocket expenses can be reimbursed — but expenses are reimbursement of costs, not payment for work, and no one should be prevented from volunteering because of their income.
- Flexible. There are no required hours and no mandatory rota. You give what you can, when you can, and your availability is yours to decide.
- Not employment. Volunteering is a distinct and separate thing from employment. It does not create an employer–employee or worker relationship, and it does not replace or undercut paid staff.We are a team, and volunteers are part of it. But volunteering is always a gift of time, freely given — never an obligation dressed up as one.---## 4. Volunteering, and the path to paid rolesWe are in our early days, and we expect that as H-CATT grows, some paid roles will open up. When they do, we want the people who have already given their time and heart to this work to have a fair shot at them.Here is how we hold both things — fairness and growth — at once:- Volunteering is voluntary and unpaid. It is not employment, and volunteering today is not a promise of a paid role tomorrow. No one is ever expected to volunteer in the hope of a job.
- When a paid role opens, it is filled through open, fair recruitment. The role is advertised, and applications are considered on merit.
- Volunteers are warmly encouraged to apply. In practice, people who have volunteered with us often know the work, the values, and the team better than anyone — and that experience genuinely counts. But appointment is by fair selection, not by automatic promotion.
- Becoming an employee is a new and separate relationship. If you move from volunteering into a paid role, it begins with a proper written agreement of its own — not as a continuation of your volunteering.In short: we would love for some of the people who shine here in the early days to become the people who help lead H-CATT later. We just make sure the door is open to everyone, and that no one is ever left feeling their volunteering was a back-door job with no guarantee.---## 5. Our values in practiceOur values are not slogans. They are how we actually try to work:- Honesty over overclaiming. We say what we can genuinely stand behind, and we do not inflate what we have done or what we can do. If we do not know something, we say so. This is a core value, and we would rather understate than overclaim.
- Technical integrity. We build and describe things carefully, truthfully, and in a way we can defend.
- Credit-sharing. Work is acknowledged. When many hands build a thing, many names are attached to it. No one's contribution is quietly absorbed or erased.
- Distributed collaboration. We work across disciplines, sectors, and time zones, and we treat that breadth as a strength.
- Humane pacing. We are people first. We plan around real life — including illness, recovery, caring responsibilities, and the ordinary ups and downs of being human.---## 6. Our commitments to youAs a volunteer, you are entitled to:- Fair treatment. You will be treated with respect and dignity, and never exploited.
- A safe and healthy environment. You have the right to work free from harassment, intimidation, bullying, violence, and discrimination.
- Not to replace paid staff. Your volunteering complements our work; it is not used to substitute for paid roles or to disguise unfilled vacancies.
- Support, training, and development. We will help you find your feet and grow. You are not expected to already know everything — most of our team started without prior experience and learned here.
- A voice. You are welcome to contribute to how volunteering works at H-CATT, including to this charter itself. If you see something that could be better, say so.
- To raise concerns. You always have a route to raise a problem or a worry. The [Support & Sounding Board] is the private channel for exactly this, and you can also reach out directly at any time.
- Room to find your real role. People sometimes arrive for one thing and discover they thrive at another. We make room for that — you are not locked into the label you walked in with.---## 7. What we ask of youIn return, we ask that you:- Act professionally. Be courteous, reliable where you have committed to something, and considerate of your teammates.
- Be honest. Do not overclaim, whether about your own contribution or about H-CATT's work. If you are unsure, ask.
- Respect confidentiality. Some of what we work on is sensitive. You will be asked to sign a confidentiality agreement (NDA), and we ask that you honour it — both while you are with us and after you leave.
- Respect others. Treat every teammate with the same dignity you expect for yourself.
- Take care of yourself. Tell us when you need to step back, slow down, or pause. We would far rather know than guess.---## 8. How we make decisionsWe are a young organisation, and our way of working is deliberately fluid. Here is how decisions tend to happen:- Decision-making is organic, not rigid. Not every person is on every project, and so no single person is always the decision-maker. Who decides depends on the work in front of us.
- Technical direction follows expertise. When a decision is about the work itself, it generally follows the people who know that work best — regardless of title or location.
- People find their own grooves. Someone may arrive to help with one thing and naturally settle into another that suits them better. We want that. Room to flex your strengths is part of how we work.
- When a decision is genuinely ambiguous or unmade, it falls to the Director — and, as we grow, to the heads of departments as they are established.If you are ever unsure who decides something, or feel a decision has been left hanging, ask. It is always better to surface that early.---## 9. Credit, IP, and your own workOur approach to credit and intellectual property is simple, and it is one of the things we are proudest of:> Your ideas stay yours. Period.- Your personal projects are your own. Whatever you build on your own time, for your own projects, remains 100% yours. H-CATT claims no ownership over your side projects, research, or creativity — even when they align with our mission.
- Work you create for H-CATT, for H-CATT's designated work, is H-CATT's. When you contribute to something as part of your volunteering, that contribution is made for H-CATT and belongs to H-CATT.
- You are credited for your contributions. When your work is shared, your name travels with it. We do not quietly absorb or erase anyone's contribution.
- The legal detail lives in a separate agreement. The full terms are set out in our [Intellectual Property & Work Assignment Agreement]. This charter states the spirit; that agreement states the letter. They are designed to agree with each other.If you ever want to build something and are unsure where the line falls between "yours" and "H-CATT's," ask before you start. We would rather clarify early than sort it out later.---## 10. Health, wellbeing, and reasonable adjustmentWe are people first, and we mean it.- Pace yourself. There is no expectation that you push through illness, burnout, or a hard season in silence. Life happens, and we plan around it — including illness and recovery.
- Tell us how you work best. During onboarding, we ask you how your brain works best — your peak hours, your communication preferences, how you like to receive feedback, and anything we can adjust. That is not paperwork; it is how we set you up to succeed.
- Reasonable adjustments are welcome. If there is something we can change to make volunteering work better for you — how we communicate, how we structure tasks, how we meet — tell us. We will do what we reasonably can.
- There is a private line. If you are stuck, overwhelmed, or just have a "stupid question" you would rather not broadcast, the [Support & Sounding Board] is yours. No judgement, no performative tech-speak required.---## 11. Stepping back and leavingVolunteering is freely given, and it can be freely ended.- You can step back at any time. There is no notice period and no penalty. If you need to pause or stop — for any reason — you can.
- Leaving is clean and without stigma. We want you to leave well. There is no shame in stepping back, and the door stays open.
- When you leave, we part cleanly. We will ask you to return or delete any internal documents, credentials, and access keys, as set out in the [NDA].
- Confidentiality continues. What you agreed to keep confidential remains confidential after you leave. This protects H-CATT, its partners, and the people you worked alongside.---## 12. Legal status and reviewFor clarity, and in plain language:- Volunteers are not employees or workers. Volunteering with H-CATT is unpaid and voluntary. It does not create an employment relationship, and it does not carry the rights or obligations of employment.
- Expenses are not wages. Reimbursement of pre-agreed, out-of-pocket expenses is not payment for time.
- This charter is a statement of values and practice, not legal advice. For formal guidance on charity regulation and volunteer status, please see:
- OSCR (Scottish Charity Regulator): https://www.oscr.org.uk/
- Employment status guidance: https://www.ncvo.org.uk/help-and-guidance/involving-volunteers/volunteers-and-the-law/employment-status/
- This charter will be reviewed. We will revisit it periodically as H-CATT grows and changes. Volunteers are welcome to suggest changes at any time.---This charter is intended to be warm, clear, and protective — for volunteers and for H-CATT alike. If anything here does not match your experience, tell us. That is how it gets better.