SPRITE+ hosts first hybrid sandpit

SPRITE+ hosts its first hybrid sandpit

Overview

In January 2023 we welcomed 35 participants from 21 different organisations to our hybrid sandpit focussed on the theme of 'Future Digital Identity'.

Sandpit participants were selected from a range of organisations, career stages and research expertise, including technical, scientific, and social science disciplines.

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:

How will new and emerging technologies create, exacerbate, or mitigate challenges to identity creation, verification, or erasure?
What are the social, legal, cultural, political, environmental, and behavioural implications of evolving approaches to digital identity and the development of new biometrics?
What roles do identity creation, verification and erasure play in the delivery of future government or commercial (etc) services?

Sandpit participants were guided by mentors, including members of the SPRITE+ Mangagement Team; SPRITE+ Expert Fellow, Professor Julie Gore (Professor of Organizational Psychology, Birkbeck University of London); SPRITE+ Expert Fellow, Professor Carsten Maple (Professor of Cyber Systems, University of Warwick); and SPRITE+ Expert Fellow, Dr David Ellis (Associate Professor in Information Systems, University of Bath).

The sandpit culminated in presentations to the Funding Panel, chaired by SPRITE+ Director, Professor Emma Barrett, and including representatives of academia, industry and government.

We expect to announce the final funded projects in April.

We'd like to thank all of our sandpit participants, mentors, stakeholders and funding panel members for their contributions.

Feedback from participants

The organisation of the event was excellent, and participants felt welcome, important, and respected throughout. Also, a wide variety of participants, with distinct expertise and interests, which made for the exciting and inspiring conversations.

Overall, it was a very positive experience. The in-person event exceeded my expectations and turned out to be very valuable. The selection and balance of participants was ideal. The SPRITE+ team did a very good job communicating the details of the sandpit (e.g. explaining that participants should not come with preconceived ideas) and creating a good atmosphere.

The whole sandpits organisation was really impressive. Very professional and well organised. Everyone was helpful and friendly.

See our how-to guide on how to run a virtual sandpit here.