Research to bridge the gap between marginalised communities and tech developers

A project which will join up conversations about future technologies between communities which tend to be marginalised and industry partners has just got funding.

The SPRITE+ (Digital Technologies, Power and Control) project led by Dr Lara Frumkin, Senior Lecturer in Psychology in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, has just been awarded almost £50,000 funding by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) to look at digital technologies, power and control.

The project, which will run from 1 August 2020 to 31 July 2022, is from the EPSRC’s SPRITE+ NetworkPlus projects, addressing trust, identity, privacy, and security with a focus on digital contexts.

Dr Frumkin is leading the strand that covers topics such as how to create empowered, informed communities with the knowledge and ability to make choices about the impact of future technologies; how to prevent future technologies deepening the digital divide and how to address how marginalised voices will be heard.

Dr Frumkin said: “This important work will help provide a conduit between those who are marginalised from having a voice on issues around security, trust, privacy and identity in developing technologies with industry partners who create cutting edge platforms for everyday use.”

The grant is an EPSRC grant awarded by the University of Manchester though the OU is the leading partner. The co-investigating partners are Birmingham City University, Newcastle University and University of Sheffield.

Find out more about OU research in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences