Co-create Data Empowered Societies Projects at our Summer Sandpits

About

The three sandpits will address key focus areas of the DES theme:

• Sandpit A: Working and Learning in Data-Empowered Societies (20 June, 13:30 - 18:00)
• Sandpit B: Knowing and Deciding with Data (10 July, 09:30 - 12:30)
• Sandpit C: Data and Social Change (10 July, 13:30 - 18:00)

These events will provide a forum for discussion and collaboration, creating an environment for a cross-disciplinary group of academics and practitioners to come together to foster innovation and creativity in research design.

This approach mirrors a core value of the Grand Challenge programme, the ethos of supporting and promoting challenge-led research that is innovative, interdisciplinary, bold and societally impactful.

We recommend joining the sandpit which aligns closest with your work, but you are more than welcome to attend more than one. 

Details and booking links for each sandpit:

Sandpit A: Working and Learning in Data-Empowered Societies

• Friday 20 June, 13:30 - 18:00, 150 Holborn (Sidara offices)

This theme is for staff who are interested in/working on:

• The transformation of working and learning environments with data
• And how we empower humans through this process
• Example topics:
  • Education and data
  • AI and education
  • improving diagnostics
  • team cultures/ social dynamics of digital work
  • leadership and transformation
  • surveillance of workers & learners
  • equality of opportunity in work and education

An important overarching question is how can work and learning be transformed in ways that consider unseen societal changes, rather than focusing on technology or being data-driven?

For more detail on what this theme involves, have a look at this article written by the DES academic leads (Professor James Hetherington and Professor Allison Littlejohn).

Book your place

Sandpit B: Knowing and Deciding with Data

• 10 July, 09:30 - 12:30, Wellcome Collection

This theme is for staff who are interested in/working on:

• The processes and efficiencies of decision-making across all sectors, private and public, where data is used.
• How data is stored, processed, shared and used in societally-relevant areas such as healthcare, education, sustainability and justice.
• Example topics:
  • Data-led resilience against e.g. climate change, antimicrobial resistance, cyberattacks, conflict, economic challenges
  • Responding to crises
  • Promoting informed discourse and politics
  • Planning for the future.

Important questions include: how do we prioritise human needs when developing new ways of knowing and deciding? Can resilience be nurtured through data?

For more detail on what this theme involves, have a look at this article written by the DES academic leads (Professor James Hetherington and Professor Allison Littlejohn).

Book your place 

Sandpit C: Data and Social Change

• 10 July, 13:30 - 18:00, Wellcome Collection

This theme is for staff who are interested in/working on:

• Empowering citizens / communities and minority groups with data
• Tackling data-led biases and inequalities
• Addressing issues around mis/disinformation
• Example topics: 
  • Ownership and regulation of the data behind our 'virtual selves',
  • Data protection in a world of generative AI, 
  • Empowering indigenous communities,
  • Protecting our virtual selves from theft/deletion, 
  • Tackling disinformation while empowering citizens with data.

For more detail on what this theme involves, have a look at this article written by the DES academic leads (Professor James Hetherington and Professor Allison Littlejohn).

Book your place

Funding opportunities

Following these sandpits we will be announcing details of a Grand Challenges pump-priming funding call. Project ideas and collaborations forged through the sandpits will be very well-placed to develop proposals to bid for this funding. Please note: to ensure a fair application process, funding offers will not be made at the sandpits.