ESRC SDR UK Strategic Advice Team: Ethics and Legalities
Monday 7th October 13:00 – 15:00
Online
About the Event
We are excited to invite colleagues to the last online workshop as part of the ESRC Smart Data Research UK: Strategic Advice Team project. The workshop will allow the research community to contribute to a discussion regarding ethical standards and legal assurance of smart data research. We invite colleagues from all disciplines who utilise, plan to use, or have insights into ethical frameworks for research and their application to the use of smart data sources. Such data may range from consumer transactions to social media posts, from GIS mobility data to health data — any digital data traces we leave in our everyday interactions.
This workshop will devote time to discussing researchers’ experience of engaging with and utilising smart data and how good practices and standards are being supported.
Questions may include:
- Where are frictions for smart data in the ethical research landscape, from researchers’ perspectives?
- How might ethical review processes in HE settings be better prepared for the uptake of smart data?
- Should we be aspiring to standardisation? What are the inherent challenges of a uniform ethical framework?
- What differences exist between ethical best practice and legal best practice?
- What should be the next steps in consolidating insights in this area?
The workshop will be a facilitated online event held on the 7th October from 1300-1500. The outcomes will inform the SDR UK Programme deliberations on programme activities, particularly their plans for ethics and legal resources.
Speakers
Professor Suchith Anand is an internationally recognised expert in sustainable development and geospatial science, providing guidance and advice to governments and international organisations on data science, data ethics, open education, open data and open science policies. He is passionate about education enabling an inclusive society which supports a full commitment to equality, diversity and the public good. He has positioned his work to serve as a bridge between academia and the worlds of policy and practice.
Suchith will be speaking about the work taking place at The Ethical Data Initiative, which he co-founded. The EDI seeks to tackle significant issues such as data literacy, transparency, and trust-building within data ecosystems. By fostering open dialogue and collaboration, the initiative sets out to shape ethical data practices and pave the way for a more transparent and trustworthy data landscape.
Dr Nina Di Cara - Nina is based at the University of Bristol where she researches the relationship between mental health and digital footprints. She also conducts meta-research on responsible innovation in data science and researcher well-being in mental health research.
Nina will be speaking about her project with Dr Natalie Zelenka and Dr Huw Day, The Data Hazards Project. The Data Hazards project aims to mitigate downstream harms of data science tools and research by prompting researchers and developers to reflect on potential ethical issues and mitigate them where possible. The project provides resources to bring in a wide variety of views on these issues, and help researchers reflect about the ethics of their work.