Next Stage Digital Economy Centre in the Decentralised Digital Economy (DECaDE)

Lead Research Organisation: University of Surrey
Department Name: Vision Speech and Signal Proc CVSSP

Abstract

Data-driven innovation is transforming every sector of our digital economy (DE) into a de-centralised marketplace; accommodation (AirBnb), transportation (Uber), logistics (Deliveroo), user-generated vs. broadcast content in the creative industries (YouTube). We are witnessing an inexorable shift from classical models centred upon monolithic institutions, to a dynamic and decentralised economy in which anyone is a potential producer and consumer. A gig economy, underpinned by digital products and services co-created through shorter-lived, diverse peer-to-peer engagements.

Yet, the platforms that enable this DE are increasingly built on centralised architectures. These are not controlled by society, but by large organisations making commercial decisions far from the social contexts they affect. There is an urgent need to disrupt this relationship, to deliver proper governance that empowers society to take control of the DE and enables people to assert greater agency over the vast centralised silos of data that drive these platforms.

We stand on the cusp of a second wave of DE disruption, driven by bleeding edge data-driven technologies (AI) and secure, distributed data sharing infrastructures such as Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLT), in which data is no longer siloed but becomes a fluid, de-centralised commodity shifting power away from tech giants to individuals and de-centralised organisations. This future Decentralised Digital Economy (DDE) enables people and organisations to work together, to trade, and ultimately to trust via frictionless digital interactions free from reliance upon centralised third parties, but often with reliance upon autonomous services.

This shift in agency and power is a game changing opportunity for society to take back control over its digital economy - but we have a limited window of opportunity to get it right. We have already witnessed de-centralisation in the financial sector, where the lack of regulation and clear governance of crypto-currencies has proven a double-edged sword, allowing free exchange of value across the globe, but that is coupled with fraudulent company flotations and currency rates rigged by large mining pools. This is a consequence of technology-driven innovation unchecked by socio-economic insight; a lack of knowledge making policy makers impotent in the face of the tech giants. We are now at the tipping point of similar wide-sweeping disruption across all sectors in the DDE, a transformation that will radically redefine our models of value and how it is created, the ways in which we work, and how we use and extract value from our data.

DECaDE represents a critical and timely opportunity to shape this emerging de-centralised digital economy (DDE), to develop insights that define a new 21st century model of work and value creation in the DDE, and ensure a prosperous, safe and inclusive society for all.

DECaDE is a 60 month centre, comprising 21 people and building upon over 8.6 million pounds of feasibility scale UKRI/EPSRC investments in DLT and Human Data Interaction (HDI) held by the proposing team. DECaDE is a three-way partnership between the Universities of Surrey and Edinburgh, and the Digital Catapult DLT Field Labs. The latter is a full member of the consortium, through which we have co-created this research programme and with whom we will engage in further co-creation of the future DDE through diverse end-users in the public and private sector to support the competitive position of the UK

Planned Impact

DECaDE will enhance the competitive position of the UK, working with 34 industry and government end-user partners (match investment 4.1M of total match 6.8M) to deliver a prosperous, safe and inclusive digital economy (DE). DECaDE will deliver long-term horizontal impact across all sectors within the DE, as it transitions to a fully decentralised form in which data becomes a fluid, de-centralised commodity, shifting governance back to society and generating radical new opportunities for working and co-creating value. The Digital Catapult (DC) Field Labs are front and centre of DECaDE as the primary mechanism for co-creating this impact, engaging current (and future) end-users to co-create and translate research within a 'living lab'.

TH1 delivers vertical impact across the key creative industries sectors covering content production: TV broadcast via the BBC, Sony; music via Blokur; video streaming via Youtube. Outcomes include new business models and ways to co-create value from creative content via improved IP attribution, facilitating re-use of content through smart contract enabled micropayments and novel models of content ownership (Audience Strategies, Bristows). DECaDE will develop new ways to protect content though digital provenance, working with key actors in different media forms (Adobe: image/video, Dimension and Insurent: 3D assets/4D Video, Coinmode: virtual assets in video games, BBC/National Archives: cultural heritage). A use case in news integrity will be run with BBC News, leveraging Synthesia video rewrite technology to produce test footage. Exploitation will be driven through licensing technology, delivering growth in audience and revenue.

TH2. Working with digital identity platform providers and (TRUU, Consult Hyperion) and NCSC/GCHQ we will map the capabilities and governance structures of self-sovereign ID schemes that utilise DLT and develop policy recommendations around the interplay between UK legislation and self-sovereign identity. TH2 will output novel federated machine learning technology that can leverage de-centralised data to collaboratively build AI models and help users visualize (Wallscope) and extract value from data understanding the legal frameworks to enable that in decentralised form (Bristows). With DC Field Labs we will co-create a data marketplace that enables data to move with fluidity and (controlled) autonomy between creator and provider, co-creating personalised services and compensating the owner (buildingon COMEHERE). This will unlock new economic models for data that will deliver broad impact across all sectors of the DE. Our frameworks will adapt ODI's ongoing work on Data Trusts and embed RRI throughout via Data and AI Ethics workshops at DC Machine Intelligence Garage.

TH3 delivers impact for those working in future gig economy enabled by the DDE; focusing on casual or voluntary sectors (Volunteer Scotland and Oxfam, building on OXCHAIN), and professional services. We will develop technical prototype of a self-sovereign work record, developed alongside UKGov departments (DWP Scottish Government, HMRC) and the SCRIPT centre. Within the Field Labs, work with DWP will study how definitions of the value of work evolve (e.g. toward reputation, or qualification) and relates to the provenance and integrity of a self-sovereign work record. Integration of payment technology from Fintech providers (DCT, Clarion Bond, Thomson) will develop new forms of value exchange that are linked to the individuals work record, and from this we will develop policy recommendations with HMRC for digital taxation in this ecosystem, as well as legal insights into employment law (with Fieldfisher, UCU) in the DDE.

DECaDE will deliver training and capability in DE research; including 9 PhDs and 5 PDRAs with translational opportunities toward full academic posts and for industry fellows to embed within the centre. DE researchers will undertake international exchanges with Blockchain@UBC

Organisations

 
Title A Token Gesture: Public Interactive NFT Minting Experience 
Description A Token Gesture is an exhibition and research project to introduce, explore and critique new public interactions and ownership of digital art via 'non-fungible tokens' - more commonly known as NFTs. In this project, members of the public in Edinburgh will be able to: Generate unique pieces of digital art through a street-level, walk-up interaction Register their artwork for display in the exhibition via the InSpace City Screen Mint, claim and own a non-transferable NFT, representing their piece of art, that will allow them to control how their piece is displayed We have worked with two Scottish generative artists Sasha Belitskaja and Cameron "Gingey" to create a system where anyone can generate a unique piece of digital art simply by presenting a colour to a fixed camera. Participants are then carefully guided through setting up a crypto-wallet to claim and mint an NFT representing their piece. This NFT - a unique, digital token - cannot be transferred, or exchanged. However, it serves to register the artwork, evidence an individual's contribution, and will allow them to control when the artwork is displayed on the City Screen projectors. As a critical research project, our aims are to: Offer hands-on opportunities for the public to learn about, experience and reflect critically on generative art and NFTs. To study users' experiences, practices and understanding of creating and managing NFTs To explore how NFTs can (or cannot) offer audiences new ways to connect with and 'own' digital art and content. 
Type Of Art Artefact (including digital) 
Year Produced 2022 
Impact Significant public engagement with more than 1000 interactions at street level, including more than 100 members of the public engaging directly with the exhibition to mint a non-transferable NFT. 
URL https://nft.inspace.ed.ac.uk/
 
Title Financial Transaction Mark-Up Language 
Description 'FTML: Financial Transaction Markup Language' was s a speculative design project, resulting in the exhibition of a short film to consider how new services and protocols related to transactional data could become embedded in everyday digital apps and services. It was developed initially in response to a brief to produce a short film for the UK-based 'Future of Money' award which would envision a 'change to an existing financial system'. Our initial assumption was to imagine the widespread use and adoption of Open Banking, leading to a proliferation of accessible transactional data, and new digital services based upon this. We proposed FTML as a technical standard to enable universal interoperability of monetary records. Specifically, we imagined that the core transactional data produced by banks and payment providers could be further 'marked-up' for use, display and programming via other applications. This mark-up could expand the premise of money as social media, and might allow for additional messages, data, analytics or rules to be attached to a transaction. In this way, money itself might become more differentiated, more communicative, represent particular values, and set the stage for more relational work. 
Type Of Art Film/Video/Animation 
Year Produced 2022 
Impact Film shown to various public audiences, and exhibited as part of the annual 'Future of Money' competition, hosted in 2022 at the University of Arts London. Used as a tool to develop further partnerships and funding opportunities related to Open Banking and programmable money. 
URL https://www.suprasystems.studio/futureofmoney
 
Title ORA-gen 
Description ORA-gen is an online tool, available via a public website, that explores how to embed attribution and licences inside media files. It is a form of 'unfinished software' aiming to present a complex technical framework called ORA in a way that enables users to understand the key components of this framework and ideate on how ORA could be deployed in their own work/practice or address challenges that they face around ownership, rights, and attribution. ORA (standing for Ownership, Rights, and Attribution), combines different decentralising technologies (including blockchains, smart contracts, and non-fungible tokens (NFTs)) to implement three key tasks: Ownership: It enables creators and end-users to independently prove ownership of their digital assets, and any rights/licences associated with them. Rights: It enables creators to design and issue specific and bespoke licences for their digital creations. These licences are machine-readable and publicly recorded on a distributed ledger. Attribution: It embeds metadata directly inside digital media files in the form of a manifest file, which cannot be easily stripped or removed. This includes provenance data, which tracks the origin of all the media involved in creating a new artwork. This is implemented through the C2PA metadata standard. 
Type Of Art Artefact (including digital) 
Year Produced 2023 
Impact Ongoing engagement with cultural and creative sector to understand the potential value(s) of media tokenisation. Numerous engagements with non-experts to introduce and explore this emerging technology. Developing more sophisticated conversations about role of DLT in cultural sector specifically, and building confidence and criticality in engaging with these tools. 
URL https://oragen.designinformatics.org/
 
Description DECaDE is conducting research to explore the potential of decentralized data-centric technologies (particularly AI and Distributed Ledger Technology) to develop decentralized platforms for the future creative economy. We have developed technical prototypes and studied issues around inclusive design, regulatory/policy issues and business models for a decentralized content marketplaces and studied the potential for these platforms in the future of creative work. Several studies have included examination of NFTs: their opportunities and their shortcomings for the creative economy. We have developed technical and policy insights into the issue of fake new and misinformation, and how decentralized technologies can help mitigate this threat. We have studied supply chains as an archetype for the application of DLTs no only within the creative supply chain context, but also in terms of commodities and cross-border trade. We have studied the role of identity in all of these contexts, and developed prototypes for privacy preserving rights assertion over digital assets in conjunction with the Digital Catapult Field lab. We have disseminated these outcomes through online brochures, videos, webinars, academic publications, talks and policy consultation responses.
Exploitation Route We have published extensively in top-tier conferences journals with open access, and have input to several government policy consultations and government workshops. Our outcomes enable practioners to build and study the ramifications of decentralized platforms particularly within the context of the creative industries. DECaDE is currently in only its second year of its five year duration.
Sectors Creative Economy

Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)

Education

Leisure Activities

including Sports

Recreation and Tourism

Culture

Heritage

Museums and Collections

URL http://www.decade.ac.uk
 
Description DECADE is the UKRI research centre for the decentralised digital economy. It brings together academia, industry and government to innovate in Distributed Ledger technology (DLT) for the public good, in direct response to Lord Holmes' 2017 report recommending this cross-cutting approach. DECaDE studies the decentralised or gig economy, in which anyone can be a producer or consumer of digital goods or services. In other words, the digital supply chain. For example, I could ride or drive an Uber. I could stay or lease out an apartment on Airbnb. But these peer to peer interactions that underpin our economy and society all currently take place on centralised platforms, with centralised governance. DECaDE explores how decentralised platforms can create fairer, more inclusive governance and create value across the supply chain. Here are some of the impacts DECaDE has created in its first 3 years of operation. Set against the incredible advances in generative AI, now more than ever people need tools to be able to make informed decisions about the authenticity of content. DECaDE has contributed tools to trace the provenance of media to help users make those decisions. In other words, to ensure trust in the creative supply chain. With our industry partners we have contributed to the C2PA a cross-industry standards group for media provenance, mentioned in a number of policy documents. We have published numerous papers on media provenance in the highest profile venues (ICCV, CVPR, AAAI, ECCV). Some of our academic research is patented and licensed into commercial products protecting users against misinformation. We have also released software open source to encourage adoption of this work. The same provenance technologies can be used to trace where the data our AI is trained on has come from, so that we know it will be safe. That is, safeguarding the data supply chains that will underpin our future digital platforms. We have created new technologies and frameworks for ensuring creative attribution in Generative AI; recognising and reward creative contributions to GenAI training. The RFIT programme for Reduced Friction in International Trade explored physical supply chain use cases for DLT - to trace the provenance of goods in cross-border trade. This work has extended to the Ecosystem of Trust, exploring how systems can change the trust relationships between supply chain participants and improve operational efficiency. This programme was a direct consequence of a series of workshops run with the UK Cabinet Office in the wake of Lord Holmes DLT for Public Good report. We have studied public attitude to DLT and digital literacy around this emerging technology through situated experienced such as Token Gesture resulting in several publications in HCI and interaction design. We have contributed policy evidence to several government consultations on NFT and tokenized assets, and input to APPG meetings on these topics. In addition to these societal and economic outcomes, DECaDE has also developed several PhD and postdoctoral researchers into their next steps in industry R&D and faculty positions.
First Year Of Impact 2024
Sector Creative Economy,Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Financial Services, and Management Consultancy,Leisure Activities, including Sports, Recreation and Tourism,Manufacturing, including Industrial Biotechology,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections,Security and Diplomacy
Impact Types Cultural

Societal

Policy & public services

 
Description Advisory meeting at HM Treasury building
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Participation in a guidance/advisory committee
Impact Ran a series of workshop with the UK cabinet office to help reduce friction in cross border trade.
URL https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-ecosystem-of-trust-evaluation-report-2023
 
Description All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) Blockchain
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Contribution to a national consultation/review
URL https://twitter.com/appg_blockchain/status/1407321913345679369?s=20
 
Description Contribution to APPG session on Government, Democracy and Voting
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Contribution to a national consultation/review
URL https://lordchrisholmes.com/blockchain-appg-evidence-meeting-government-democracy-and-voting/
 
Description Contribution to Consultation on draft legislation to support identity verification
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Contribution to a national consultation/review
URL https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/draft-legislation-to-help-more-people-prove-their-identi...
 
Description Contribution to Lord Holmes roundtable for DLT for Public Good
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Participation in a guidance/advisory committee
 
Description Ecosystem
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Contribution to a national consultation/review
Impact Contributed input to the report on the Ecosystem of Trust - cited as contributor as Annex E
URL https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-ecosystem-of-trust-evaluation-report-2023
 
Description Non-fungible tokens and the blockchain
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Contribution to a national consultation/review
URL https://committees.parliament.uk/work/7038/nonfungible-tokens-nfts-and-the-blockchain/
 
Description Ownership of Digital assets
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Contribution to a national consultation/review
Impact Our submission was cited in the final report of the Law Commission, https://s3-eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/cloud-platform-e218f50a4812967ba1215eaecede923f/uploads/sites/30/2023/06/Final-digital-assets-report-FOR-WEBSITE-2.pdf
URL https://www.lawcom.gov.uk/project/digital-assets/
 
Description British Academy funded £69,364.00 for the project Fighting fake news: online disinformation in COVID time's
Amount £6,936,400 (GBP)
Organisation The British Academy 
Sector Academic/University
Country United Kingdom
Start 09/2021 
End 04/2022
 
Description Campagne d'accueil de scientifiques étrangers
Amount € 4,000 (EUR)
Organisation University of Grenoble 
Sector Academic/University
Country France
Start 01/2023 
End 08/2023
 
Description Future Infrastructure for Retail Remittances (FIRE)
Amount £280,000 (GBP)
Organisation United Kingdom Research and Innovation 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 04/2021 
End 10/2022
 
Description Decentralised trading floor for content ownership and rights 
Organisation British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution Proposed solution: 1. Fingerprinting- Develop tamper-evident content fingerprinting technologies for tracing images and video. Draw upon partner expertise for audio fingerprinting. Explore tamper visualization. 2. Platform- Develop and deploy a DLT prototype across a federation of project partners, for storage and query of provenance information. Compare decentralised tech with a focus on Layer 2 DLT solutions and ZK rollups. Build a technical demonstrator of the platform e.g. for misinformation 3. Law- Provision of detailed understanding of how civil society fights fake news and the emotional mechanism through which fake news spreads and can be counteracted. 4. Business- Report of the emerging legal landscape around AI and reverse asset lookup considering the privacy and IPR issues raised by a provenance system.
Collaborator Contribution Partners will be giving their inputs related to business challenges during the course of the project.
Impact This project is still going on.
Start Year 2021
 
Description Decentralised trading floor for content ownership and rights 
Organisation SONY
Department Sony Broadcast and Professional Europe
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Private 
PI Contribution Proposed solution: 1. Fingerprinting- Develop tamper-evident content fingerprinting technologies for tracing images and video. Draw upon partner expertise for audio fingerprinting. Explore tamper visualization. 2. Platform- Develop and deploy a DLT prototype across a federation of project partners, for storage and query of provenance information. Compare decentralised tech with a focus on Layer 2 DLT solutions and ZK rollups. Build a technical demonstrator of the platform e.g. for misinformation 3. Law- Provision of detailed understanding of how civil society fights fake news and the emotional mechanism through which fake news spreads and can be counteracted. 4. Business- Report of the emerging legal landscape around AI and reverse asset lookup considering the privacy and IPR issues raised by a provenance system.
Collaborator Contribution Partners will be giving their inputs related to business challenges during the course of the project.
Impact This project is still going on.
Start Year 2021
 
Description Decentralized Registry for Content Attribution 
Organisation Adobe Inc.
Department Adobe Research
Country United States 
Sector Private 
PI Contribution Research outcome proposed: 1. Develop tamper-evident content fingerprinting technologies for tracing images and video. Draw upon partner expertise for audio fingerprinting. Explore tamper visualization. 2. Develop and deploy a DLT prototype across a federation of project partners, for storage and query of provenance information. Compare decentralised tech with a focus on Layer 2 DLT solutions and ZK rollups. Build a technical demonstrator of the platform e.g. for misinformation 3.Create provision of detailed understanding of how civil society fights fake news and the emotional mechanism through which fake news spreads and can be counteracted. 4. Report of the emerging legal landscape around AI and reverse asset lookup considering the privacy and IPR issues raised by a provenance system
Collaborator Contribution Partners contribute by providing technical inputs through out the course of the research.
Impact Research is still ongoing. The collaboration is multidisciplinary and the research work trying to solve DLT, AI, Business and legal challenges .
Start Year 2021
 
Description Decentralized Registry for Content Attribution 
Organisation British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
Department BBC Research & Development
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution Research outcome proposed: 1. Develop tamper-evident content fingerprinting technologies for tracing images and video. Draw upon partner expertise for audio fingerprinting. Explore tamper visualization. 2. Develop and deploy a DLT prototype across a federation of project partners, for storage and query of provenance information. Compare decentralised tech with a focus on Layer 2 DLT solutions and ZK rollups. Build a technical demonstrator of the platform e.g. for misinformation 3.Create provision of detailed understanding of how civil society fights fake news and the emotional mechanism through which fake news spreads and can be counteracted. 4. Report of the emerging legal landscape around AI and reverse asset lookup considering the privacy and IPR issues raised by a provenance system
Collaborator Contribution Partners contribute by providing technical inputs through out the course of the research.
Impact Research is still ongoing. The collaboration is multidisciplinary and the research work trying to solve DLT, AI, Business and legal challenges .
Start Year 2021
 
Description Decentralized Registry for Content Attribution 
Organisation Protocol Labs Inc.
Country United States 
Sector Private 
PI Contribution Research outcome proposed: 1. Develop tamper-evident content fingerprinting technologies for tracing images and video. Draw upon partner expertise for audio fingerprinting. Explore tamper visualization. 2. Develop and deploy a DLT prototype across a federation of project partners, for storage and query of provenance information. Compare decentralised tech with a focus on Layer 2 DLT solutions and ZK rollups. Build a technical demonstrator of the platform e.g. for misinformation 3.Create provision of detailed understanding of how civil society fights fake news and the emotional mechanism through which fake news spreads and can be counteracted. 4. Report of the emerging legal landscape around AI and reverse asset lookup considering the privacy and IPR issues raised by a provenance system
Collaborator Contribution Partners contribute by providing technical inputs through out the course of the research.
Impact Research is still ongoing. The collaboration is multidisciplinary and the research work trying to solve DLT, AI, Business and legal challenges .
Start Year 2021
 
Description Decentralized Registry for Content Attribution 
Organisation SONY
Department Sony Broadcast and Professional Europe
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Private 
PI Contribution Research outcome proposed: 1. Develop tamper-evident content fingerprinting technologies for tracing images and video. Draw upon partner expertise for audio fingerprinting. Explore tamper visualization. 2. Develop and deploy a DLT prototype across a federation of project partners, for storage and query of provenance information. Compare decentralised tech with a focus on Layer 2 DLT solutions and ZK rollups. Build a technical demonstrator of the platform e.g. for misinformation 3.Create provision of detailed understanding of how civil society fights fake news and the emotional mechanism through which fake news spreads and can be counteracted. 4. Report of the emerging legal landscape around AI and reverse asset lookup considering the privacy and IPR issues raised by a provenance system
Collaborator Contribution Partners contribute by providing technical inputs through out the course of the research.
Impact Research is still ongoing. The collaboration is multidisciplinary and the research work trying to solve DLT, AI, Business and legal challenges .
Start Year 2021
 
Description Decentralized Registry for Content Attribution 
Organisation The National Archives
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution Research outcome proposed: 1. Develop tamper-evident content fingerprinting technologies for tracing images and video. Draw upon partner expertise for audio fingerprinting. Explore tamper visualization. 2. Develop and deploy a DLT prototype across a federation of project partners, for storage and query of provenance information. Compare decentralised tech with a focus on Layer 2 DLT solutions and ZK rollups. Build a technical demonstrator of the platform e.g. for misinformation 3.Create provision of detailed understanding of how civil society fights fake news and the emotional mechanism through which fake news spreads and can be counteracted. 4. Report of the emerging legal landscape around AI and reverse asset lookup considering the privacy and IPR issues raised by a provenance system
Collaborator Contribution Partners contribute by providing technical inputs through out the course of the research.
Impact Research is still ongoing. The collaboration is multidisciplinary and the research work trying to solve DLT, AI, Business and legal challenges .
Start Year 2021
 
Description Future of work and content production 
Organisation British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution Proposed solution: 1. Design. Prototype an end-to-end workflow model for content production in the gig economy. Prototype technical solutions for location-aware contracting in a creative production. How might design thinking methods support the development of conceptual and early prototypical models that best represent the flow of value across a distributed creative value chain 2. Cyber security/Legal- Study what kinds of identity service and privacy features might be required by participants in a decentralised creative workplace. 3. Technological//Legal- Developing a new legal framework to replicate rights and responsibilities of unions and work councils in the old economy can facilitate for collective action of gig workers without running foul of competition law 4. Business- Study how value could be co-created through the use of decentralised organising tools.
Collaborator Contribution Providing technical inputs during the course of the project.
Impact This research work still going on. Some of the outcomes are listed in the publication and outcome section. Minimum Viable Prototypes (MVPs) of technologies Ticket Designer CityScreen NFT
Start Year 2021
 
Description Future of work and content production 
Organisation SONY
Department Sony Broadcast and Professional Europe
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Private 
PI Contribution Proposed solution: 1. Design. Prototype an end-to-end workflow model for content production in the gig economy. Prototype technical solutions for location-aware contracting in a creative production. How might design thinking methods support the development of conceptual and early prototypical models that best represent the flow of value across a distributed creative value chain 2. Cyber security/Legal- Study what kinds of identity service and privacy features might be required by participants in a decentralised creative workplace. 3. Technological//Legal- Developing a new legal framework to replicate rights and responsibilities of unions and work councils in the old economy can facilitate for collective action of gig workers without running foul of competition law 4. Business- Study how value could be co-created through the use of decentralised organising tools.
Collaborator Contribution Providing technical inputs during the course of the project.
Impact This research work still going on. Some of the outcomes are listed in the publication and outcome section. Minimum Viable Prototypes (MVPs) of technologies Ticket Designer CityScreen NFT
Start Year 2021
 
Description Grenoble-Edinburgh collaboration on blockchain and AI 
Organisation University of Grenoble
Country France 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Organized a joint workshop at the University of Grenoble on Blockchain, AI and Quantum computing with contributors from academia and industry
Collaborator Contribution Provided rooms and catering, paid for travel and accommodation of invited speakers, took the lead in organization
Impact We have reached an agreement for book publication that will report the results of the workshop. The collaboration is multi-disciplinary, involving law, sociology, physics, computer science and economics
Start Year 2023
 
Description Identity in Decentralised Creative Economy 
Organisation British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution Proposed Solution: 1. Develop a prototype decentralised self-sovereign identity scheme and integrate with decentralised platforms developed for content attribution. Determine the requirements for such schemes and develop the protocols to realise them. 2. Cyber Security. Develop security protocols for issue and use of credentials within a self sovereign identity system and formalise the required security and privacy properties. Verify the protocols against the requirements in the context of trust frameworks, and incorporate them into the prototype identity system. 3. Law. A computational turn in law that turns as much of it as possible into executable code. This will find new forms of governance for those aspects that are difficult to hide, but need new forms of enforcement to stay true to the decentralised nature of the platform and does not replicate hierarchical legal structures unnecessarily 4. Design. Study existing interfaces for platforms that engender trust and decentralised identity. Use service design methods to journey map freelancers experiences through the lenses of cost, risk, effort and friction.
Collaborator Contribution Partners will be providing technical inputs during the course of the project.
Impact This research work is ongoing. Minimum Viable Prototypes (MVPs) of technologies- SSI photo credential issuer
Start Year 2021
 
Description Identity in Decentralised Creative Economy 
Organisation SONY
Department Sony Broadcast and Professional Europe
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Private 
PI Contribution Proposed Solution: 1. Develop a prototype decentralised self-sovereign identity scheme and integrate with decentralised platforms developed for content attribution. Determine the requirements for such schemes and develop the protocols to realise them. 2. Cyber Security. Develop security protocols for issue and use of credentials within a self sovereign identity system and formalise the required security and privacy properties. Verify the protocols against the requirements in the context of trust frameworks, and incorporate them into the prototype identity system. 3. Law. A computational turn in law that turns as much of it as possible into executable code. This will find new forms of governance for those aspects that are difficult to hide, but need new forms of enforcement to stay true to the decentralised nature of the platform and does not replicate hierarchical legal structures unnecessarily 4. Design. Study existing interfaces for platforms that engender trust and decentralised identity. Use service design methods to journey map freelancers experiences through the lenses of cost, risk, effort and friction.
Collaborator Contribution Partners will be providing technical inputs during the course of the project.
Impact This research work is ongoing. Minimum Viable Prototypes (MVPs) of technologies- SSI photo credential issuer
Start Year 2021
 
Title ADVERSARIALLY ROBUST VISUAL FINGERPRINTING AND IMAGE PROVENANCE MODELS 
Description The present disclosure relates to systems, methods, and non-transitory computer readable media that utilize a deep visual fingerprinting model with parameters learned from robust contrastive learning to identify matching digital images and image provenance information. For example, the disclosed systems utilize an efficient learning procedure that leverages training on bounded adversarial examples to more accurately identify digital images (including adversarial images) with a small computational overhead. To illustrate, the disclosed systems utilize a first objective function that iteratively identifies augmentations to increase contrastive loss. Moreover, the disclosed systems utilize a second objective function that iteratively learns parameters of a deep visual fingerprinting model to reduce the contrastive loss. With these learned parameters, the disclosed systems utilize the deep visual fingerprinting model to generate visual fingerprints for digital images, retrieve and match digital images, and provide digital image provenance information. 
IP Reference US2023222762 
Protection Patent / Patent application
Year Protection Granted 2023
Licensed Yes
Impact Impact to be added
 
Title DETERMINING VIDEO PROVENANCE UTILIZING DEEP LEARNING 
Description Video Finger printing Technology 
IP Reference 17/822573 
Protection Patent / Patent application
Year Protection Granted 2023
Licensed Yes
Impact License to a commercial partner
 
Title ROBUST CONTENT FINGERPRINTING FOR IMAGE ATTRIBUTION 
Description A visual search system facilitates retrieval of provenance information using a machine learning model to generate content fingerprints that are invariant to benign transformations while being sensitive to manipulations. The machine learning model is trained on a training image dataset that includes original images, benign transformed variants of the original images, and manipulated variants of the original images. A loss function is used to train the machine learning model to minimize distances in an embedding space between benign transformed variants and their corresponding original images and increase distances between the manipulated variants and their corresponding original images. 
IP Reference US2022215205 
Protection Patent / Patent application
Year Protection Granted 2022
Licensed Yes
Impact To be added
 
Title ORA-gen 
Description ORAgen is a server-side web application, which instantiates and demonstrates the technologies underlying the ORA framework by allowing users to create, tokenise, licence, and remix simple colour collages. The application consists of a database, local Ethereum network, and Flask application. The Flask application serves the front-end interface for users to interact with the demo via web browser, and also exposes an API to handle interactions with the Ethereum blockchain. The database stores details of users and their creations on the platform. The whole system is containerised using Docker, which makes it easy for others to run on their own devices/servers. 
Type Of Technology Webtool/Application 
Year Produced 2023 
Open Source License? Yes  
Impact This software is being used on an ongoing basis to support the Ora-gen demonstrator and will be used to support future deployments of the ORA framework with an industry partner. 
URL https://oragen.designinformatics.org/
 
Title Trustmark - image watermarking technology 
Description An Open Source, MIT licensed implementation of TrustMark watemarking for the Content Authenticity Initiative (CAI) 
Type Of Technology Software 
Year Produced 2023 
Open Source License? Yes  
Impact Integration with media provenance tools 
URL https://github.com/adobe/trustmark
 
Description "Blockchain for Supply Chain Management" Undergraduate Lecture at Trinity College, Dublin 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Undergraduate students
Results and Impact A guest lecture for Trinity College Dublin final year supply chain module. The work created awareness on how blockchain technology/ decentralization could help addressing many challenges faced by firms in otherwise complex supply chain management system. Blockchain technology can be used to create platforms which could provide complete provenance of a product or service, and an auditable trail of data related to the firms offer.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description "Blockchain for Supply chain management" 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Undergraduate students
Results and Impact Create awareness on how blockchain technology/ decentralization could help addressing many challenges faced by firms in otherwise complex supply chain management system. Blockchain technology can be used to create platforms which could provide complete provenance of a product or service, and an auditable trail of data related to the firms offer.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description "Blockchain" - International MSc Guest Lecture Queen Mary London 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact Guest lecture to international MSc at St Mary's University. Discussed what blockchain is and its applicaitons
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description "Blockchain" half day lecturer and design workshop for Surrey full time MBA students 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Lecture introducing theory, method, and application of blockchain. Then a task to design a blockchain based system. MBA group is truly global, with only one UK student in the group. The class came from a range of professions, some still employed.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description "I miss you", design performance for Rematerialising the Digital: An Interdisciplinary Dialogue, research symposium by Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Invited talk
Speed, C. 8 Feb 2023 "I miss you", design performance for Rematerialising the Digital: An Interdisciplinary Dialogue, research symposium by Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (IASH) and the Centre for Data, Culture and Society (CDCS) at the University of Edinburgh.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/rematerialising-the-digital-an-interdisciplinary-dialogue-tickets-526...
 
Description A Token Gesture 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact A Token Gesture is an academic research project, led by researchers at the Institute for Design Informatics, part of the UKRI funded DECaDE: Centre for a Decentralised Digital Economy. DECaDE is a collaboration between the Universities of Surrey, Edinburgh and the Digital Catapult.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
URL https://inspace.ed.ac.uk/
 
Description ABS Programme: FinTech by Design, Aisan Banking School. University of Edinburgh Business School. 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Speed, C. 7th September 2022 ABS Programme: FinTech by Design, Aisan Banking School. University of Edinburgh Business School.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description AI and the Law Webinar 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact An online discussion panel with audience Q&A on the impact of AI on the regulatory landscape, especially from a copyright and data protection perspective. Organised jointly with the Mandela Institute at Wits University, it attracted a wide audience of participants across Africa
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDJLRbV8HPw
 
Description All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) Blockchain 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Contribute to evidence session on Blockchain for Government
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
 
Description Artificial Intelligence in Publishing 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact A workshop with a discussion panel on the impact of AI on publishers, including their copyright and privacy implications. Discussion included automated translation and the rights management for them, contracts and licenses with authors and the identification of new business models
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://efi.ed.ac.uk/event/artificial-intelligence-in-publishing/
 
Description Asian Banking School Programme: FinTech by Design 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Asian Banking School Programme: FinTech by Design
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Banks Don't You're your Money, They Hold Your Data 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Speed, C. & Vines, J. 12 Oct 2022 Banks Don't You're your Money, They Hold Your Data, SOCIETY 5.0 FESTIVAL, Amsterdam
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
URL https://society5festival.com/agenda1/banks-dont-hold-your-money-they-hold-your-data/
 
Description Behavioural Science for Usable Security 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact Half day interdisciplinary workshop on the application of behavioural science to usable security design
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
URL https://www.ias.surrey.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Behavioural-Science-Event-Programme.pdf
 
Description Birgit Altrichter 2022 CADE Conference Presentation: "Content Trading in the Future Decentralized Creative Economy: Exploring Current Weaknesses and Potential Resolutions" 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact Competitive Advantage in the Digital Economy Conference 2022 aims to provide opportunities for academics and practitioners to share the latest research
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
URL https://youtu.be/LDfLPMnjlZA
 
Description Blockchain by Design, Instituto Superior Técnico , University of Lisbon 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact Speed, C. 12th April 2022 Blockchain by Design, Instituto Superior Técnico , University of Lisbon
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Border Innovation Hub meeting (Cabinet office and Home Office) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact Attendance and discussion of future of UK borders. Work from Mike Brookbanks feeds into this group.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
 
Description Can Money Save the World? Beyond Architecture Day 02. Connected Cities? University of the Basque Country 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact Speed, C. 9 Nov 2022 Can Money Save the World? Beyond Architecture Day 02. Connected Cities? University of the Basque Country
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Conference presentation: Exploring paradoxes in Distributed Ledger Technologies 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Conference presentation. The 7th Competitive Advantage in the Digital Economy (CADE) Conference is an exclusive two-day event, bringing together academics and practitioners to discuss the challenges of the digital economy and present the latest cutting edge research.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
URL https://twitter.com/appg_blockchain/status/1407321913345679369?s=20
 
Description Cryptocurrency and electric money 
Form Of Engagement Activity A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Media (as a channel to the public)
Results and Impact Press piece on cryptocurrency and its impact
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
 
Description DECaDE Showcase Event 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact DECADE Research Showcase took place on 2nd of December 13.00-17.00 (UK/GMT). This was a wonderful opportunity for us to share all the exciting work that has been happening in the field of Decentralised Digital Economy, with particular focus on the Creative Economy with our industry partners and new businesses. Bernadine Bröcker Wieder, Co founder and CEO of Vastari, joined us as our key note speaker and shed some light on the rise of NFTs and their future implications for the decentralised creative economy, and lightning talks were given by our researchers about the future of AI and DLT in creating decentralized platforms for the creative industry. There was also a networking event and a virtual posters sessions to share industry insights over AI, and DLT/Blockchain, and the Digital Economy.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
 
Description Data, Value + Design #2: Designing After Fungibility 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact Defined as "a product or commodity that has been contracted for: that can be replaced by another identical item without breaking the terms of the contract. More generally: interchangeable, replaceable." (OED), fungibility is most commonly applied to money and its innate quality that "commensurates incommensurabilities" (Carruthers & Espeland 1998, p. 1400). The use of money as a device to support the exchange of practically anything, has traditionally allowed us to disassociate any contextual information from a product or service, as money carries only an economic value with it. However, as data becomes smart by being 'bound' to information in immutable blockchains, we find that even forms of digital currency are forced to the remember where and who they came from, and what they were used to buy (O'Dwyer, 2019). A process that makes them non-fungible.

As the data economy continues to pervade every industry, using technology such as blockchains, this webinar explores the opportunities to design after fungibility. Following a brief introduction to the concepts of fungibility and non-fungibility, the team introduce a design methodology to encourage designers to reconceive a design process through a non-fungible lens.

This is the second webinar that contributes to questions of value in the context of design research within data-driven cultures and economies. The webinar also forms part of an ongoing discussion within the European DCODE PhD network to explore how digital economies reshape forms of value creation and displacement across design.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://www.designinformatics.org/event/di-webinar-data-value-design-2/
 
Description Design for Web3, Shopify, Lisbon 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact Speed, C. & Elsden, C. 24th May 2022 Design for Web3, Shopify, Lisbon
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Designing from/with/ by data, Invited speaker for Research Libraries UK (RLUK)Digital Shift Forum. 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact RLUK's Digital Shift Forum brings together colleagues from across the information, research, cultural and heritage communities, and third and commercial sectors, to discuss the future of the digital shift in collections, services, and audiences.

These monthly seminars include high-profile international speakers, from a wide variety of backgrounds and professions, who are at the forefront of current thinking around the digital shift. They provide time and space for wide-ranging, inter-disciplinary discussions regarding the future of the digital shift, and provide a springboard for cross-sector collaboration.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Emotional regulation and institutional maintenance: debunking fake news with emotions 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Leading conference for organisational studies. Conference presentation.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
URL https://youtu.be/Jl800bJlQUY
 
Description Executive Education - MBA class lecture 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Lecture introducing theory, method, and application of blockchain. Then a task to design a blockchain based system.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
 
Description FinTech by Design. Keynote for iGnite: GCash Innovation Summit 2023. Philippines, via video. 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact FinTech by Design. Keynote for iGnite: GCash Innovation Summit 2023. Philippines, via video.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://www.mdi.net.ph/2023/09/ignite-gcash-innovation-summit-2023-embracing-imagination-driving-inn...
 
Description Funging the non-fungible: Laying down the law on NFTs 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact This is a panel discussion chaired by Smita Kheria, University of Edinburgh. The panel includes- Alexandra Giannopoulou (Universiy of Amsterdam); Andres Guadamuz (University of Sussex) Sean Thomas (University of York); Burkhard Schafer (The University of Edinburgh). Through this event, we try to answer few important questions related to NFTs such as- what do we buy if we buy an NFT? How does the law think about this new phenomenon? NFTs seem to speak to some deeply felt needs in the artistic community, but can they deliver, or are they at best a fad, at worst a rip off? Can they help struggling artists whose income streams have been depleted through Covid, or can they fuel illegal activities and much more.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
URL https://decade.ac.uk/?page_id=560
 
Description Future of Cyber: e-voting 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Webinar on the opportunities and risks of e-voting
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
URL https://www.evensi.com/digital-democracy-electronic-voting-opportunities-challenges/408968097
 
Description Future of Money Exhibition - Financial Transaction Markup Language 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Presentation of 'Financial Transaction Markup Language' in a public exhibition for the Future of Money Award 2022, hosted at UAL.

Engaging the general public in questions around the futures of money and decentralised finance.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
URL https://www.suprasystems.studio/futureofmoney
 
Description Geocoin: An Interactive Workshop, Hyper Island, Manchester. 19th May 2021. 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact An invited talk hosted by Hyper Island Manchester and attended/presented online.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
 
Description Guest Lecture 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact Dr Birgit Altrichter gave PhD students a lecture on her work on Theorizing the Contested Space of Paradoxes for Distributed Ledger Technologies
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Guest lecture on business models at the University of Applied Sciences St. Pölten, Austria 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Undergraduate students
Results and Impact Guest lecture on business models, introducing the business model canvas theoretically and practically drawing on examples from DECaDE research on content trading
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
 
Description HMRC Bristol advisory meeting on ways forward for Ecosystem of Trust 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact HMRC Bristol Advisory meeting to discuss ways forward for Ecosystem of Trust team and integration with other Gov initiatives
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description HMRC Workshop - "Blockchain in Supply Chain" led by Prof Parry EPSRC DECADE Project Surrey University 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact '+30 civil servants from HMRC, Cabinet Office, Home Office, Border Force, International Chamber of Commerce. All engaged in digital international borders. Workshop with DECADE members from Surrey Business School giving 15 min presentations as a lead in to discussion. Focus on the Governments move to digital borders and how blockchain helps, and the potential barriers.
Held 1130am -330pm on 19th January 2023 at Government Offices Great George Street / I00 Parliament Street, plus additional attendees joined online
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description HMRC update meeting to discuss Ecosystem of Trust 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact HMRC update meeting to discuss Ecosystem of Trust
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description IEEE Podcast on Blockchain 
Form Of Engagement Activity A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press)
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Media (as a channel to the public)
Results and Impact Interviewed for IEEE Blockchain Podcast Series, discussing various approaches to engaging public and partners on topics of DLT. Providing examples of work from DeCaDE project, and the wider Institute for Design Informatics. Hosted by Quinn du Pont - a leading academic & consultant in the context of blockchain and DLT.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
URL https://open.spotify.com/episode/3qI9YoRtSDy9VSIsxxULQ1?si=79670e49b0da4f0b
 
Description Invited Talk, University of Swansea 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Talk + discussion: Verify My Vote: Augmenting an Internet Voting System with Voter Verifiability
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
 
Description Invited talk and panelist for the final DLT4EU event, Brussels / online 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact 8 Venture Teams developed spearheading solutions for our Accelerator programme. But, only three of them were awarded with follow-on funding to keep working on their initiatives. Leading-voices of the sector joined a live Round Table to discuss how emerging technologies can help tackle social and environmental challenges.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
URL https://www.dlt4.eu/final-event
 
Description Keep Cutting: Designing with Data UniSA: Creative HDR Seminar and Critique, University of South Australia, Adelaide 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Speed, C. 3rd August 2022 Keep Cutting: Designing with Data UniSA: Creative HDR Seminar and Critique, University of South Australia, Adelaide
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Keep Cutting: Designing with Data, Adelaide Action Lab, Monash University. 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Speed, C. 25th July 2022 Keep Cutting: Designing with Data, Adelaide Action Lab, Monash University.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Keep Cutting: Designing with Data, RMIT, Melbourne 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Speed, C. 27th July 2022 Keep Cutting: Designing with Data, RMIT, Melbourne
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Keynote speaker at CVPR workshop on Visual Copy Detection 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact Presentation on Visual Copy Detection to academia and businesses.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Keynote speaker at DARPA SemaFor project event 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact Keynote at DARPA SemaFor project event on media provenance
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
 
Description Keynote talk at ECCV Workshop on Vision and Art 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact John Collomosse gave a invited Keynote talk ""Content Provenance: To Authenticity and Beyond!" on content provenance and decentralized creative economy work carried out on the DECaDE project at ECCV 2022
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
URL https://visarts.eu/
 
Description Keynote talk for Architecture, Media, Politics & Society Conference 2022, Calgary, Canada 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Speed, C. 29th June 2022 From Countryside to Country-side, Keynote talk for Architecture, Media, Politics & Society Conference 2022, Calgary, Canada
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
URL https://architecturemps.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Keynote-Document_Calgary.pdf
 
Description Ludic-Architectures Summer School, University of Plymouth 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact Speed, C. 29th June 2022 Ludic-Architectures Summer School, University of Plymouth
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
URL https://i-dat.org/ludic-architectures/
 
Description March 2023 "Blockchain" half day lecturer and design workshop for full time MBA students 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact Lecture introducing theory, method, and application of blockchain. Then a task to design a blockchain based system. MBA group is global, with many still employed.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description November 2022 "Blockchain" half day lecturer and design workshop for Surrey full time Executive MBA students 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Executive MBA lecture introducing theory, method, and application of blockchain. Then a task to design a blockchain based system. Executive MBA group come from a range of professions, with some very senior.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description ORA-gen Demo - MOVE Summit 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact The research team demonstrated the ORA-gen prototype, over two days, at this conference and gathering for those working in animation in Scotland. The demonstration enabled the research team to engage practitioners in this specific creative industry, on the themes of ownership, attribution and rights, and introduce the potential value of decentralised technologies. Several practitioners planned to engage further with the research team on these topics as a result.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
URL https://www.movesummit.co.uk/
 
Description Outreach talk to Secondary School (Wilsons School) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact Outreach talk to Secondary School (Wilsons School)
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Outreach talk to Secondary School (Wilsons School) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact A talk to a school about Blockchain
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
 
Description Panelist at CVPR Workshop on Media Forensics 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Panelist at CVPR Workshop on Media Forensics
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Parliamentary Blockchain Industry Roundtable 16th Jan 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Discussion on IP, value and tech; Parry as named speaker
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
 
Description Participation at All Party Parilamentary Group (APPG) Blockchain workshop 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Participation at All Party Parilamentary Group (APPG) Blockchain workshop to discuss ways forward for Ecosystem of Trust team and integration with other Government initiatives. Panel discussion involving industry leaders and MP's, on DLT
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Participation in CAI Symposium (Stanford) 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact DECADE participation in CAI Symposium (Stanford)
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Participation on a panel at TechUK Event 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact Speaker on a panel at TechUK event "Border Strategy 2025: Opportunities for Tech Companies & Consortia"
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://www.techuk.org/what-we-deliver/events/border-strategy-2025-opportunities-for-tech-companies-...
 
Description PhD Guest lecture: Theorizing the Contested Space of Paradoxes for Distributed Ledger Technologies - Designing Qualitative Research 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact Dr Birgit Altrichter gave PhD student group guest lecture on her work on blockchain from DECADE
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Playing within Systems for Change (The Art Panel) with Ioannis (John) Bardakos, Tegan Bristow, and Claudia Westermann Relating Systems Thinking and Design Symposium: Systemic Design Association 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Speed, C. 6 Oct 2022 Playing within Systems for Change (The Art Panel) with Ioannis (John) Bardakos, Tegan Bristow, and Claudia Westermann
Relating Systems Thinking and Design Symposium: Systemic Design Association
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
URL https://rsdsymposium.org/arts-panel/#pdf-rsdx_art-panel_playing-within-systems-for-change-3/1/
 
Description Presentation and demonstration of DECaDE and FIRE research at FinTech Scotland All Strategy Partners Meeting, Edinburgh. 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact Speed, C. 1 Dec 2022 Presentation and demonstration of DECaDE and FIRE research at FinTech Scotland All Strategy Partners Meeting, Edinburgh.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Presentation and demonstration to Wells Fargo & NCR 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact Speed, C. 2 Dec 2022 Presentation and demonstration to Wells Fargo & NCR on DECaDE and FIRE research. Edinburgh.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Presentation and discussion for Future Gaze: The Future of Creative Innovation, Creative Edinburgh, Edinburgh. 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Speed, C. 23 Nov 2022 Presentation and discussion for Future Gaze: The Future of Creative Innovation, Creative Edinburgh, Edinburgh.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Presentation to Sony R&D 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact Presentation to Sony R&D on media provenance technologies
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Presentation/Talk at The International Conference on AI and the Digital Economy (CADE 2023) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Conference presentation. The International conference on AI and the Digital Economy (CADE 2023) conference is an exclusive two-day event, bring together academics and practitioner to discuss the dynamic intersection of digital technology and the digital ecnomy, and present the latest cutting edge research
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/conhome/10324414/proceeding
 
Description Presentation/Talk at the British Academy of management conference 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Conference presentation. British academy of management 2023 conference is an four-day event, bring thogether business and management scholars, policy setters and business leader to discuss the disruptive role of the latest digital advancements as enablers of disruptive technologies.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://www.bam.ac.uk/events-landing/past-conferences/bam2023-conference.html
 
Description Seminar on legal ontologies given at ReMeP: Research Meets Practice 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact ReMeP is an annual event to bring research in law and technology to practice. It is attended mainly by representatives from industry, legal practice and government Chaired panel and gave keynote talk on Legal Ontologies. 470 participants, lead to extended questions and discussions, and 2 follow up invitations Recordings of the talks are made available as training tools
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
URL https://www.remep.net/materials-2020/
 
Description Speaker at Oxford AI Safety Summit 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact A talk at the AI Safety Summit to talk about Blockchain and the impact on Business.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Talk on DECaDE to CTU Prague 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact Talk on DECaDE to CTU Prague
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Talk on Privacy-Preserving Image Sharing with Self-Sovereign Identity 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact A talk presenting the results of the DECaDE field lab on Privacy-Preserving Image Sharing with Self-Sovereign Identity, presented to London Crypto Day 2023 aimed at an audience of professionals, industrialists and academics.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://sites.google.com/view/london-crypto-day/lcd-2023
 
Description The Future is FinTech / D2 Live Session 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact The Future is FinTech / D2 Live Session
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://www.business-school.ed.ac.uk/executive-education/future-is-fintech/programme
 
Description Ubiquity 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact EMERGING TEACHING ECOSYSTEMS
"Education systems globally are waking up to the step changes they will have to make if everyone, young and old, is to thrive in our increasingly digital, complex and rapidly changing world."
Hannon, V. et al 2019

Educational systems around the world, particularly language teaching systems, have been immersed in new ecosystems that have generated drastic changes in the ways of teaching and learning foreign languages. This metamorphosis is causing students and teachers, young and old, to make unavoidable adjustments in the execution of their roles, either as teachers or learners, in order to prosper in our new educational world: digitized, digitalized, complex and dynamic.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://fiid.mx/26fiid/conference.php
 
Description Ubiquity / Keynote 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact 29th ICE IEEE/ITMC Conference (19-22 June) + NITIM 2023 Doctoral School (15-17 June)


Shaping the future
Data-driven Engineering, Innovation and Entrepreneurship




Hosted by The University of Edinburgh's School of Engineering and the Institute for the Study of Science, Technology and Innovation (ISSTI)

ICE IEEE/ITMC is the International Conference on Engineering, Technology, and Innovation, part of the IEEE Technology and Engineering Management Society (TEMS). It developed from an early focus on the engineering method of concurrent engineering to the general organisation of the engineering process and its organization within the corporation and in networks. The ICE conference, therefore, discusses systems engineering as a socio-technical task focusing on the design of products and services, and the entrepreneurial innovation process for its adoption in society and the economy.

NITIM is an international graduate school for research on Networks, Information Technology and Innovation Management. Network members include PhD candidates, alumni, faculty and industry partners in over 10 countries around the world, representing over 20 nationalities. NITIM network members convene physically at bi-annual PhD consortia to support young scholars and connect network members. Members and partners also meet at more regular intervals, at regional learning circles and career development events. To find information on upcoming NITIM events, kindly visit our news and events page.

In line with Edinburgh's strategic vision, the ICE 2023 Conference and the NITIM 2023 Doctoral School will have a specific focus on data-driven engineering, innovation and entrepreneurship.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/ice-2023/
 
Description Value creation and displacement Design Research Seminar: Next generation design research in the UK: Conditions, possibilities and consequences. Edinburgh College of Art. 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Speed, C. 28th September 2022 Value creation and displacement
Design Research Seminar: Next generation design research in the UK: Conditions, possibilities and consequences. Edinburgh College of Art.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Video in Surrey's "Impact in Conversation" series on voting 
Form Of Engagement Activity A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press)
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Media (as a channel to the public)
Results and Impact Talk on verifiable electronic voting system.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNAL9cFSY5I
 
Description Visit from Dr Nick Fowler, Elsevier's Chief Academic Officer 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact Spoke to Dr Nick Fowler about DECaDE and the research that we are doing with DLT, fake news and the provenance of images and video.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
 
Description Webinar: Ownership of Digital Assets 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact Two webinars were held for industry and professional practitioners (one focussing on the creative sector, the other with a broader remit) with the dual aim to inform these communities on the proposed law reform of the law of digital assets, and to allow these groups to feed back into the consultation. It outlined the reform proposal and indicated possible consequences for businesses that create, hold or trade in digital assets. It introduced our tentative response from an academic research perspective, eliciting feedback and criticism to make our response relevant to praxis
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Webinar: What the future may hold: The Law commission's proposal on legal personality for DAOs 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact A webinar held for industry and professional practitioners with the dual aim to inform these communities on the proposed law reform of the law of Distributed Autonomous Organisations (DAOs) and to allow these groups to feed back into the consultation. It outlined the reform proposal and indicated possible consequences for businesses that considered using blockchain based DAOs as a vehicle for their business It introduced our tentative response from an academic research perspective, eliciting feedback and criticism to make our response relevant to praxis
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Workshop for the Creative Industries 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact The workshop had 41 total attendees including representatives form DECaDE and Digital Catapult with 26 external representatives from the Creative industries from Freelancers to Large corporate.
Participants from DECaDE were Catherine Shreeve,Nastasha Velasco, John Collomose, Chris Elsden, Frances Liddell, Evan Morgan, Billy Dixon, Kar Balan, Robert Learney, Jennifer Cheung
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
URL https://digitalcatapult.my.salesforce-sites.com/events/event/home/decadeworkshop
 
Description Workshop with National Archives 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact One day workshop with National Archives on media provenance technologies
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description security and investment challenges in digital economy 
Form Of Engagement Activity A magazine, newsletter or online publication
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Media (as a channel to the public)
Results and Impact Press piece on Emerging trends in the digital economy
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021