At the end of November, over 100 attendees from academia, business, government and civil society organisations came together to celebrate the launch of SPRITE+ in the University of Manchester's spectacular Whitworth Art Gallery.

The event featured presentations by speakers including Professor Colette Fagan, the University of Manchester’s Vice-President for Research, and SPRITE+ Director, Professor Emma Barrett. External speakers included Steve Wood from the Information Commissioner’s Office, and Lee Smith from Arm, who kindly sponsored the event.

The event encouraged delegates to think about the biggest challenges for digital security, privacy, identity and trust, with outcomes feeding into the identification of the SPRITE+ Challenge Themes during our Expert Fellows meeting, which took place the following day. External speakers Emma Barrett, Professor of Psychology, Security and Trust at the University of Manchester and Director of SPRITE+, said: "I am delighted at the amount of interest, enthusiasm and energy that SPRITE+ has already generated. We have had engagement from across the academic community and from research end users in business, government, police and civil society. All are eager for more collaboration on issues of security, privacy, identity and trust in our digital world, and the SPRITE+ team is looking forward to creating opportunities to make that happen."

Membership of SPRITE+ is free and open to anyone involved in exploring the future of trust, identity, privacy and security, from researchers, to industry, business, government, law enforcement and civil society organisations. Members receive a newsletter, they can join the discussion list, and have access to online resources and opportunities to attend events and bid for funds. Members’ online profiles offer opportunities to contact each other for networking and building collaborative relationships as well as hosting virtual meetings and workshops.

Register to join SPRITE+ here.