Call for Participants for the SPRITE+ Virtual Sandpit

Call for Participants to Attend the SPRITE+ Virtual Sandpit on Digital Vulnerabilities

Closing date: 19 May 2021

Overview

SPRITE+ is pleased to invite Members and Expert Fellows to apply to attend an online sandpit on Digital Vulnerabilities in July 2021. Up to £160k of SPRITE+ funding will be made available to fund interdisciplinary projects arising from this sandpit.

The research challenge

The theme of this Sandpit is “Future Digital Vulnerabilities”. This is one of our four Challenge Themes, identified by our Expert Fellows Community. In our sandpit we will co-create innovative interdisciplinary projects to explore aspects of digital vulnerability from technical, social, and socio-technical perspectives.

Some of the questions we might consider include (but are not limited to):

How should we conceptualise, identify, and assess vulnerabilities to future digital harm?
How might we protect networks, hardware, individuals, communities, organisations and nation states from increasingly complex harms and/or make them resilient in the face of harm?
What roles will technology, people, organisations, governments, and societies play both in enabling and reducing digital risks and harms?

Every academic discipline is or could be relevant to developing innovative ideas to explore this topic and we welcome applications from researchers across STEM, Arts and Humanities, and Social and Behavioural Sciences. We welcome applications from scholars who have not previously worked on digital security as well as those with an established track record in TIPS topics.

Expected commitment from participants

The sandpit will be run entirely online (via Zoom) at the following dates and times in July 2021:

Friday 02 July, 13.00 – 14.30: Sandpit session 0, orientation and pre-meet for participants
Monday 05 July, 13.00 – 16.30: Sandpit session 1, exploring the challenge area
Wednesday 7 July, 13.00 – 16.30: Sandpit session 2, research teams start to form
Monday 12 July, 13.00 – 16.30: Sandpit session 3, work in progress presentations and peer review
Thursday 15 July, 13.00 – 16.30: Sandpit session 4, presentation to the Funding Panel

What can I expect?

Our first online sandpit in July 2020 ran very smoothly and resulted in some terrific ideas for new short projects. Here’s some of the feedback from last year’s participants:

The sandpit brought people together which would have never met otherwise. I met fantastic colleagues and am very grateful for this opportunity. It was a focused and well-structured event which was also exceptionally well organised and facilitated. Thank you!

An excellent experience and one that I would highly recommend. Rather than having months to plan and think about a project it forces you to think creatively and strategically, taking on board other interests and feedback.

My whole virtual sandpit experience has been very positive. I attended a ‘normal’ sandpit a few years back and I can say that I found the virtual sandpit a lot more inclusive, with participants regardless of seniority, title, gender and ethnicity actively participating. The facilitators were great and always responding to any queries.

How to apply

Applications are invited from SPRITE+ Members and Expert Fellows from:

Academia (applicants must be eligible to receive UKRI funding, please see the UKRI Eligibility Guide)
Professional practice (non-academic)

All applicants should be registered members of SPRITE+. You can apply for membership (which is free of charge) here.

Applicants should complete the short application form and submit to admin@spritehub.org by 19 May.

Important documents

Further information

If you have any further questions regarding this call, please contact Natalie Theodoulou (SPRITE+ Network Manager) admin@spritehub.org.