In July 2021 we welcomed 35 participants from 25 different organisations to our online sandpit focussed on the theme of 'digital vulnerabilities'. This is one of our four Challenge Themes identified by our Expert Fellows Community.
Sandpit participants were selected from a range of organisations, career stages and research expertise, including technical, scientific, and social science disciplines.
Over the course of five sessions spread over three weeks, the sandpit participants co-created innovative interdisciplinary projects to explore aspects of digital vulnerability from technical, social, and socio-technical perspectives.
Some of the questions they considered included:
Sandpit participants were guided by mentors, including members of the SPRITE+ Mangagement Team; SPRITE+ Expert Fellow, Professor Lizzie Coles Kemp (Professor in Information Security, Royal Holloway University of London); SPRITE+ Project Partner, Dr John Blythe (Head of Research and Behavioural Science, Cybsafe); and former SPRITE+ sandpit participant, Professor Washington Yotto Ochieng (Director of Institute for Security Science and Technology, Imperial College London).
The sandpit culminated in presentations to the Funding Panel, which was chaired by SPRITE+ Director, Professor Emma Barrett. Other members of the Panel included Lee Smith (Fellow, Arm), Lucy Mason (Defence and Security Expert, PA Consulting), Michael Joyce (Co-executive director, The Smart Cybersecurity Network (SERENE-RISC)), Oz Alashe (CEO and Founder, CybSafe) and Professor Vladimiro Sassone (SPRITE+ Co-Director and Professor of Cyber Security, The University of Southampton).
Following deliberations by the Panel, five proposals were awarded funding. More information on the funded projects will be published in due course.
We'd like to thank all of our sandpit participants, mentors, stakeholders and funding panel members for their contributions.
See our how-to guide on how to run a virtual sandpit here.