Protecting Minority Ethnic Communities Online (PRIME)
Lead Research Organisation:
Heriot-Watt University
Department Name: Sch of Energy, Geosci, Infrast & Society
Abstract
The PRIME project will broaden understanding of online harm and how it can be mitigated through new systems, tools and processes by focusing on Minority Ethnic (ME) communities' experiences of digitalised services, particularly in the areas of housing, health and energy. We will draw on knowledge, methods and skills from social policy, cyber security and privacy, data mining and machine learning; human computer interaction, applied linguistics and educational technology. Working closely with REPHRAIN, we will engage with a wide range of individuals from ME communities, community organisations, public agencies and energy suppliers to identify and categorise the nature of the harms experienced, and assess the adequacy of existing systems and processes to counter them. We will translate this knowledge into the co-design and co-production of novel, effective and scalable social and technological harm-mitigating solutions through a Citizen-led Race Equity Living Lab (CREL). The outputs will include policy guidance in the fields of housing, health and energy as well as cross-cutting recommendations for improving online services more generally; educational resources for harm mitigation to enable individuals and organisations to more effectively protect themselves; as well as better privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs) that counter discriminatory processes in digitalised services. We will also produce benchmark datasets, tools and models to enable organisations to address ethnic inequalities in service provision and demonstrate more accountability to the public in terms of greater transparency and equitable service outcomes.
Organisations
- Heriot-Watt University (Lead Research Organisation)
- Public Health Scotland (Collaboration, Project Partner)
- Association of Local Authority Chief Housing Officers (Collaboration)
- Department of Transport (Collaboration)
- UNIVERSITY OF YORK (Collaboration)
- Shelter (Collaboration)
- Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) (Collaboration)
- The Lancet (Collaboration)
- Government of Scotland (Collaboration)
- Audit Scotland (Collaboration)
- Ofgem Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (Collaboration)
- NHS Race & Health Observatory (Project Partner)
- Mental Health Foundation (Project Partner)
- Energy Systems Catapult (Project Partner)
- Scottish Federation of Housing Assoc (Project Partner)
- CaCHE (Project Partner)
- CEMVO Scotland (Project Partner)
- BRAP (Project Partner)
- SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT (Project Partner)
- Muslim Council of Britain (Project Partner)
- COSLA Strategic Migration Partnership (Project Partner)
Publications
Balta-Ozkan, N
(2025)
Energy digitalisation: towards more equitable outcomes for minority ethnic communities
| Title | Graphic Recording of Co-Design Workshops |
| Description | We created four sets of graphic recording of the discussions taken place during one of our research activities, the co-design workshops. |
| Type Of Art | Artwork |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Impact | It provided live feedback to the participants of the workshop about the results and insights arising from the workshop. |
| Description | The research found that while some individuals from racially minoritised communities experience many positive impacts from digitalisation, others faced formidable barriers in engaging with key services, such as energy, housing and health. Among the challenges faced are lack of ability to afford digital devices and internet access; limited proficiency in English as well as limited digital skills. Concerns around privacy were also identified, with many individuals reporting fear of being discriminated against or other ways in which the information they supplied might be misused. Organisations within each of the three sectors of energy, health and housing vary in terms of readiness, digital maturity and capacity to engage with ethnically diverse service users. Awareness of the challenges experienced by some individuals from minoritised ethnic communities varies considerably. Some examples of good practice emerged, for instance, the employment of staff who were able to support service users in engaging with digital services. However, in many cases, service providers appeared to lack awareness of the barriers faced by these individuals and what could be done to assist them. Since monitoring of use of digital services by ethnicity was not a regular practice, service providers were not able to identify gaps in patterns of use or to take corrective measures to address such gaps. Currently, there is little regulatory oversight over a fair and equitable transition to digital services in all three sectors. |
| Exploitation Route | The outcomes of this funding align closely with key governmental priorities and can be used to inform the development of policies and targeted action. In Feb 2025, the UK government set out its Digital Inclusion Action Plan: First Steps. In January 2025, the UK government launched its AI Opportunities Action Plan. In the area of health, the NHS in both England and Scotland have launched 'Digital Front Doors' to increase the quality of digital healthcare. In energy, Ofgem has set out plans to digitalise the energy system to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050. In social housing, national housing strategies are lacking, but many housing associations appear to be independently digitalising their services, which is a concern since this is likely to give rise to considerable variation in the quality and inclusivity of digital services. The PRIME project has produced a variety of resources and technical tools to inform the development of targeted action in these areas. The policy briefings can be used by policy-makers and regulators to enhance awareness in the health, housing and energy sectors of the need for more attention to the design, implementation and evaluation of digital services to create safer, more accessible services and to ensure more equitable outcomes for minoritised ethnic communities. The Minoritised Ethnic People's Code of Practice can be used to help policy-makers, service providers and designers of digital services to develop more ethical and trustworthy services. The videos can be used by individuals from minoritised ethnic communities and organisations which work with them to increase their awareness of types of online harm which have emerged from the research conducted, the action they can take and sources of support. By classifying regions more effectively, GOAAT enables policymakers to make informed decisions based on insights on poverty, housing, energy, health, and ethnicity. The personas created by the PersonaCreator can be used to help inform providers and designers of digital services to design digital services which take into account end-users' fear or experience of various online harms, discrimination and bias by developing more sensitive data collection processes and privacy-enhancing technologies. The design guidelines can be used by developers and managers of digital services to assess if these services meet the requirements of ME communities. These can also be used as a checklist to assess already existing services or during planning and design of new digital services. The demonstrator app, IRESHA Sharecode, integrates Privacy Enhancing Technologies which can enable minoritised ethnic individuals to provide the least amount of sensitive eligibility data while preserving privacy but still conveying eligibility information to social housing providers. The app can also be used by social housing providers to help ensure more equitable access to social housing through more sensitive data collection processes. |
| Sectors | Communities and Social Services/Policy Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software) Energy Environment Healthcare Government Democracy and Justice |
| URL | https://www.primecommunities.online/ |
| Description | We have used our findings to inform the production of multiple social and technical resources for policy-makers, service providers, developers and designers of digital services, as well as individuals from minoritised ethnic communities and the community organisations which work with them. Findings related to the nature and types of online harm experienced by minoritised ethnic communities when engaging with digital services and the engagement of service providers with these communities through online services have been used to produce a set of policy briefs for policy-makers in energy housing and health as well as one which covers all three sectors. A policy brief on technical outputs of the project has also been produced. Some early signs are emerging that these policy briefs are being used to inform the design of digital services. For instance, policy-makers in Scottish Government and the NHS have informed us that they have shared the policy briefings with colleagues. The findings have also informed the co-design and co-production of The Minoritised Ethnic People's Code of Practice for Equitable Digital Services (ME-CoP). ME-COP contains principles and recommendations to guide the development of a digital service. We have been informed by the Equality and Human Rights Commission that they will use the Code of Practice to review the Digital Inclusion policy of the Welsh Government. The Code has also been uploaded as a resource for promoting digital inclusion by Audit Scotland. We have used findings related to the nature and type of online harms that have emerged in our research to produce three educational videos for individuals from minoritised ethnic communities and the organisations which work with them. Information about the actions that can be taken and sources of support is also included. The videos have been produced in eight languages: English, Cantonese, Gujarati, Hindi, Mandarin, Punjabi, Somali, and Urdu. Findings relating to the (digital) poverty experienced by some minoritised ethnic communities have led to the development of the GOAAT (GNN Output Area Analysis Tool) which uses state-of-the-art Graph Neural Networks (GNNs), to automatically account for geographic adjacency and improve socio-economic insights by more effective regional classification. These classifications can help us provide better regional categories to help us understand patterns of disadvantage in terms of health, housing, energy, and occupation by ethnicity. Findings on how people from these communities feel or experience various online harms, discrimination and bias while using digital services related to health, energy and social housing have been used to develop the Persona Creator app which uses machine learning techniques on survey data to create personas of people from minority ethnic communities. These personas can be used to raise awareness among service providers of the types of concerns that individuals from minoritised ethnic communities face in engaging with digital services, and help them to design safer, more accessible services. Findings relating to the privacy concerns of minoritised ethnic communities have been used to produce the demonstrator app, IRESHA Sharecode, which integrates Privacy Enhancing Technologies. The app can enable minoritised ethnic individuals to provide the least amount of sensitive eligibility data while preserving privacy but still conveying eligibility information to social housing providers. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2024 |
| Sector | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Energy,Healthcare,Government, Democracy and Justice |
| Impact Types | Societal Policy & public services |
| Description | A data-driven framework for analysing technological energy injustice in online service access among minority ethnic communities |
| Geographic Reach | Europe |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | The event instigated sharing of knowledge and modelling practices at the intersection of complex systems and energy research |
| URL | https://urbanheatsystems.leeds.ac.uk/energy-complexity-conference-2025/ |
| Description | Advisory Group member for RACISM AND HOUSING: ACCESS TO SOCIAL HOUSING project (2024 - Still Active) |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Participation in a guidance/advisory committee |
| Description | Appointment as Advisor on Shelter England's Stakeholder Advisory Group for "Racism and Housing: Access to Social Housing" |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Participation in a guidance/advisory committee |
| Description | Audit Scotland Resources for Enabling Digital Inclusion |
| Geographic Reach | Local/Municipal/Regional |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| URL | https://audit.scot/topics/digital-e-hub#resources |
| Description | Energy sector Service Provider Perspectives, PRIME Project, Energy workshop 12/7/2023 organised by Professor Nazmiye Ozkan (Cranfield University) |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Contribution to new or improved professional practice |
| URL | https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/protecting-minority-ethnic-communities-online-prime-workshop-tickets-... |
| Description | Health sector PRIME workshop (19/9/2023) organised by Professor Nazmiye Ozkan (Cranfield University) |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Contribution to new or improved professional practice |
| URL | https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/protecting-minority-ethnic-communities-online-prime-health-workshop-t... |
| Description | Informing Equality and Human Rights Commission's review of the Welsh Government's digital inclusion |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Implementation circular/rapid advice/letter to e.g. Ministry of Health |
| Description | Ofcom call for evidence |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Contribution to a national consultation/review |
| Impact | As a result of the submission to evidence, three of the contributors the submission were invited by Ofcom to attend a meeting with senior and other officials at Ofcom, and was then invited to present their research in Ofcom's internal seminar, attended by more than 140 civil servants and officials at Ofcom. |
| Description | PRIME Cross-sector Workshop: Housing, energy & health (5/10/2023) organised by Professor Nazmiye Ozkan |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Contribution to new or improved professional practice |
| Description | Response to Ofgem consultation on Consumer Standards Statutory Consultation (23rd August 2023) by Professor Nazmiye Ozkan (Cranfield University) |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Contribution to a national consultation/review |
| Description | EPSRC Impact Acceleration Account awarded to Yingfang Yuan for his collaboration with SMARTLEARN STUDIO Ltd |
| Amount | £6,893 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 03/2022 |
| End | 06/2022 |
| Description | IGNITE Network+: Innovation and Growth Needs Inclusion and engagement of all Talent in Energy research |
| Amount | £1,020,388 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | EP/W033747/1 |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 08/2022 |
| End | 09/2026 |
| Title | Graph Neural Networks for Output Area Classification |
| Description | The Output Area Classification (OAC), published by the UK's Consumer Data Research Centre (CDRC), is a single-value socio-economic indicator derived from clustering national census data. It is designed to help policymakers better understand the population. However, current methods do not consider the geographic adjacency of Output Areas (OAs) during classification, thereby failing to capture a crucial dimension of geodemographic analysis. We propose using graph neural networks (GNNs) to incorporate geographic information with OA features to generate OA embeddings. These embeddings are then used by clustering algorithms to generate a new OAC. However, existing GNNs do not perform well for this task, so we modified the loss function by combining KL and MSE loss functions. Additionally, within the GNN, we designed a new module to capture the correlations between neighboring OAs, considering that the geodemographic graph have both homophily and heterophily. |
| Type Of Material | Computer model/algorithm |
| Year Produced | 2025 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | This approach is integrated into our GNN Output Area Analysis Toolkit, which provides geodemographic insights to policymakers and stakeholders to support their decision-making process. By using this tool, users can understand the characteristics of different OAs and implement targeted human interventions to address related issues. |
| Title | Quantifying the Intersecting Discrepancies within Multiple Groups using Latent Class Analysis Towards Fairness |
| Description | We proposed an novel and generic approach to quantify the intersecting and cross-sectoral discrepancies. Basically, we run latent class analysis (LCA) on the target dataset at first, then the results of LCA are used to calculate the differences between every pair of user-defined group iteratively. Meanwhile, we systematically investigated three datasets and tested our approach on them, one from the PRIME project, and other two public datasets (EVENS and Census 2021) which are reputable and authoritative in the UK. |
| Type Of Material | Computer model/algorithm |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | It is worth noting that bias stemming from the data plays an essential role in achieving fairness, as it can potentially trigger a cascade of other biases, exacerbating fairness issues. Data bias may also reflect various forms of social inequality in the real world. Meanwhile, the discrepancy can be considered as a type of bias. Therefore, we believe that quantifying the discrepancies within the data is instrumental in understanding and mitigating bias, ultimately leading to the development of fair AI systems. |
| Description | Advisory Group member for RACISM AND HOUSING: ACCESS TO SOCIAL HOUSING project |
| Organisation | Shelter |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | Research team member Dr Deborah Menezes was invited to join the advisory group of research conducted by Shelter Scotland. The research project aimed at understanding and addressing racial inequalities in access to social housing. As part of this, our team was part of project's advisory group composed of diverse stakeholders. Deborah participated in six meetings during the course of the project and provided written feedback on outputs between meetings and at the end of the project in February 2025. The first two meeting were instrumental in designing the methodology for the project and finalising the tools. The third and fourth session was to sense check the initial findings from the project. The final two meetings were deliberative policy workshops that supported the analysis of the data, deliberation of the key findings and themes and collaboratively helped build policy recommendations and interventions. Finally, in February Deborah provided written feedback on the proposed policy solutions that Shelter England would like to propose as a direct outcome of the project. By being part of the advisory group, Deborah was able to directly contribute to meaningful systemic change within the social housing sector in the UK. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Shelter England participated in the co-design workshops and attended one of the three dissemination events organised by the project. |
| Impact | This collaboration is multi-disciplinary and includes inputs from the social sciences as well as human computer interaction. |
| Start Year | 2024 |
| Description | Appointment as Commissioner for Lancet Commission on Health, Migration and Climate Change |
| Organisation | The Lancet |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | Provide advice and expertise on climate change implications for the health of migrants |
| Collaborator Contribution | The Lancet Commission on Health Migration and Climate Change is a partnership between the World Health Summit Academic Alliance (a global network of academic organisations) and Lancet Regional Health-Europe. It is aimed at addressing the impacts of climate change on the health of migrants and refugees in the context of the European Region through scientific collaboration and visibility. It will examine prevention, mitigation and adaptation aspects relating to both originating and hosting countries. The collaboration with Lancet offers an internationally renowned platform for scientific collaboration and visibility. |
| Impact | This is a multi-disciplinary commission involving clinicians, social scientists and data scientists |
| Start Year | 2024 |
| Description | Invitation to act as a member of the steering board |
| Organisation | Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) |
| Department | Scottish and Southern Energy Power Distribution Limited |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | I have been invited to join the project steering board for a proposal led by SSEN to analyse the likelihood of household vulnerability and adoption of low carbon technologies in Scotland. The proposal is submitted to Ofgem's Strategic Innovation Fund. |
| Collaborator Contribution | My role will be to provide expert advice to the project team. |
| Impact | The proposal has been submitted. We are waiting to hear the project outcome. |
| Start Year | 2025 |
| Description | Meeting with Association of Local Authority Chief Housing Officers (ALACHO) |
| Organisation | Association of Local Authority Chief Housing Officers |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | I (Gina Netto, PI of the PRIME project) briefed the policy officer on the aims of the PRIME project and highlighted opportunities for engagement with the research team at various stages of the process, including the forthcoming online seminar for Scottish stakeholders with an interest in social housing. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The policy officer helped to identify two potential speakers for the forthcoming seminar in Scotland and offered to look out for opportunities for further dissemination of the PRIME research findings through ALACHO meetings and seminars. |
| Impact | As a result of this collaboration, high level representation from the City of Edinburgh on what had been achieved and lessons learnt through implementing the choice-based lettings scheme for the digital allocation of social housing was shared in a seminar organised by Professor Gina Netto to share the research findings from the project and engage key stakeholders in discussion of ways forward. Along with the input of other speakers, the seminar served to raise awareness of participants of some of the main challenges faced by minoritised ethnic communities in accessing social housing and what can be done by local authorities and housing associations to overcome this. The discussions from the seminar will inform policy and practice briefings for policy-makers and practitioners in social housing and inform the planning of further dissemination events. |
| Start Year | 2023 |
| Description | Meeting with Association of Local Authority Chief Housing Officers (ALACHO) |
| Organisation | Association of Local Authority Chief Housing Officers |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | I (Gina Netto, PI of the PRIME project) briefed the policy officer on the aims of the PRIME project and highlighted opportunities for engagement with the research team at various stages of the process, including the forthcoming online seminar for Scottish stakeholders with an interest in social housing. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The policy officer helped to identify two potential speakers for the forthcoming seminar in Scotland and offered to look out for opportunities for further dissemination of the PRIME research findings through ALACHO meetings and seminars. |
| Impact | As a result of this collaboration, high level representation from the City of Edinburgh on what had been achieved and lessons learnt through implementing the choice-based lettings scheme for the digital allocation of social housing was shared in a seminar organised by Professor Gina Netto to share the research findings from the project and engage key stakeholders in discussion of ways forward. Along with the input of other speakers, the seminar served to raise awareness of participants of some of the main challenges faced by minoritised ethnic communities in accessing social housing and what can be done by local authorities and housing associations to overcome this. The discussions from the seminar will inform policy and practice briefings for policy-makers and practitioners in social housing and inform the planning of further dissemination events. |
| Start Year | 2023 |
| Description | Meeting with Head of vehicles stats team at DfT |
| Organisation | Department of Transport |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | I held a meeting with the vehicles stats team at DfT with a view to identify data sources that we could use to analyse whether ethnicity is impacting the adoption of electric vehicles. This has informed us to make a data access request to DVLA to access vehicle registry database. |
| Collaborator Contribution | We have made our data request and waiting to receive the outcome. |
| Impact | We have made our data request and waiting to receive the outcome. |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | Meeting with Ofgem's Consumer Consent Solution team |
| Organisation | Ofgem Office of Gas and Electricity Markets |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | Research team member Mehdi Rizvi presented PRIME's prototypes and outcomes to Ofgem's Consumer Consent Solution team members. This came out as a follow-up from the evaluation sessions conducted by Mehdi Rizvi for evaluating PRIME prototypes with stakeholders. |
| Collaborator Contribution | They presented the current state and future plans of the Consumer Consent Solution project. |
| Impact | None so far. |
| Start Year | 2025 |
| Description | Meeting with Public Health Scotland |
| Organisation | Public Health Scotland |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | Professor Gina Netto met with a senior health improvement officer at Public Health Scotland to identify areas of mutual interest in relation to digital healthcare. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Public Health Scotland attended and publicised dissemination events and fed into the development of the policy briefs. |
| Impact | Increased mutual awareness of the scope and relevance of the findings and outputs of the PRIME project to Public Health Scotland. |
| Start Year | 2023 |
| Description | Meeting with Scottish Gov's Digital Health & Care Directorate's Digital Front Door team |
| Organisation | Government of Scotland |
| Department | Digital Health & Care Innovation Centre |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | Team members Mehdi Rizvi and Lynne Baillie met with the Digital Health & Care Directorate's Digital Front Door team, and presented the PRIME project's goals and outcomes. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Digital Health & Care Directorate's Digital Front Door team gave feedback and also connected with other relevant stakeholders for access to datasets and people who could evaluate prototypes. |
| Impact | The collaboration resulted in connecting with further relevant stakeholders for gaining access to datasets and people who could evaluate PRIME prototypes. |
| Start Year | 2024 |
| Description | Meeting with chair of Audit Scotland Equalities and Human Rights Advisory group |
| Organisation | Audit Scotland |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | I shared the aim and scope of the PRIME research and offered to continue to engage with Audit Scotland to inform their audit on how well public bodies are tackling digital exclusion. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Audit Scotland agreed to keep us informed of their audit in this area which was currently at an early stage and explore possibilities for working together. |
| Impact | N/A |
| Start Year | 2023 |
| Description | Partnership with Administrative Fairness Lab |
| Organisation | University of York |
| Department | Administrative Fairness Lab |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | PRIME and Administrative Fairness Lab have started sharing expertise, results, insights, and datasets, and discussions on further collaboration and joint outputs. |
| Collaborator Contribution | PRIME and Administrative Fairness Lab have started sharing expertise, results, insights, and datasets, and discussions on further collaboration and joint outputs. |
| Impact | There are no concrete outcomes yet. The collaboration is multi-disciplinary and The Administrative Fairness Lab brings expertise in law which complements expertise in computer science and other social sciences in PRIME. |
| Start Year | 2024 |
| Title | Design Guidelines to Enable More Equitable Digital Services |
| Description | Digitalisation of services (health, social housing and energy) should ensure that the current and future digital services meet the requirements of ME communities. As part of the PRIME Toolkit, we provide our design guidelines that can be used by developers and managers of digital services to assess if these services meet the requirements of ME communities. These can also be used as a checklist to assess already existing services or during planning of new digital services. |
| Type Of Technology | New/Improved Technique/Technology |
| Year Produced | 2025 |
| Impact | With wider adoption, the design guidelines will generate impact in terms of enabling the design of more Equitable Digital Services |
| URL | https://primetoolkit.co.uk/ |
| Title | GNN Output Area Analysis Tool (GOAAT) |
| Description | GOAAT (GNN Output Area Analysis Tool) is a webapp focused on supporting policymakers in health, housing, energy and social policy in central government, devolved administrations, public bodies and local council teams, to make inform decision-making based on census data. This webapp uses a Graph Neural Network (GNN) combines the England & Wales 2021 Census Data with geographic information to better classify Output Areas (OA). An OA is the smallest unit of geographical areas used in census data. These classifications can help us understand which urban or rural areas, and which ethnic groups in such areas are at the most disadvantage in terms of health, housing, energy, occupation etc. |
| Type Of Technology | Webtool/Application |
| Year Produced | 2025 |
| Impact | impact to be assessed. |
| URL | https://goaat.primetoolkit.co.uk/ |
| Title | IRESHA Social Housing Sharecode app |
| Description | PRIME's analysis of interviews with minoritised ethnic people found recurring security and privacy concerns when using essential online services. Data needed for social housing applications is highly personal in nature and can introduce bias and discrimination in the process. We see Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs) as a solution to mitigating these harms, while not compromising the utility of the services. As part of the PRIME toolkit, our research team has developed the IRESHA app as a proof-of-concept PET for this purpose, for the social housing sector. Immigration/Residence Status Eligibility for Social Housing (IRESHA) Social Housing Sharecode is a proof-of-concept prototype webapp, which minimises the amount of personal data needed to assess eligibility for social housing. It allows a social housing provider to check the applicant's eligibility without revealing their visa/immigration status. Doing so can help reduce bias and discrimination in the social housing application process, while still providing housing providers with enough information to determine whether an applicant meets the minimum requirements. |
| Type Of Technology | Webtool/Application |
| Year Produced | 2025 |
| Impact | This prototype has been evaluated with housing stakeholders, who appreciated the idea. Future impact may be generated if adopted as part of social housing application procedures. |
| URL | https://sharecode.primetoolkit.co.uk/ |
| Title | PRIME Toolkit |
| Description | PRIME Toolkit contains the technical outcomes of the project such as webapps, apps, algorithms, datasets, policy briefs and design guidelines. This includes: - IRESHA Social Housing Sharecode app - Persona Creator App - GNN Output Area Classification Tool - Design Guidelines for Enabling Equitable Digital Services & Online Platforms - Health, Energy, Social Housing- and cross-sectoral policy briefs - Technical Policy brief |
| Type Of Technology | Webtool/Application |
| Year Produced | 2025 |
| Impact | The toolkit will generate impact as it gets adopted by community members and stakeholders. |
| URL | https://primetoolkit.co.uk/ |
| Title | Persona Creator app |
| Description | Persona Creator toolkit allows stakeholders to explore complex datasets to understand the needs and concerns of minority ethnic communities in the UK, without the need to be experts of such data analysis. |
| Type Of Technology | Webtool/Application |
| Year Produced | 2025 |
| Impact | The tool was evaluated with various stakeholders from Shelter, Ofgem, Ofcom, Energy Systems Catapult, Directorate For Digital Health And Care, Centre on the Dynamics of Ethnicity (CoDE) and others. Stakeholders appreciated the possibility of using such a tool for their own analysis, planning and sanity checking digital services. Future impact will be generated as the tool gets wider adoption. |
| URL | https://personacreator.primetoolkit.co.uk/ |
| Title | Using Graph Neural Networks for Output Area Classification |
| Description | Current methods for classifying the socio-economic status of geographic regions, using public data such as census, do not take into account the interactions between geographically adjacent areas, which include the interaction of people, systems, services, and entities etc. Not considering such interaction leads to misleading classification of such areas. Under the PRIME project, Graph Neural Networks, a machine learning technique was used for automatically accounting for geographic adjacency and improve socio-economic insights. This technique was used for classification of Output Area in England 2021 Census. Our work considers geographical information along with demographic and census data to classify Output Areas better. This machine learning technique can be used with any other data which contains geodemographic information. |
| Type Of Technology | New/Improved Technique/Technology |
| Year Produced | 2025 |
| Impact | impact to be assessed |
| Description | All Hands Meeting (REPHRAIN) at University of Bristol |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Approximately 50 professionals attended a two-day meeting for REPHARAIN in June 2023. Throughout the event, we received several presentations on research related to security, privacy, and harm reduction, followed by productive discussions. We observed a growing interest in topics concerning AI's role in security, privacy, and harm reduction. Simultaneously, we introduced our project PRIME, showcasing how AI methods are employed to identify online harms targeting ethnic minorities. The majority of individuals I spoke with provided positive feedback and demonstrated keen interest in utilising AI to address social science challenges. Additionally, we actively participated in discussions regarding the selection of topics for upcoming funding calls. Overall, over the span of two days, I gained valuable insights from other researchers, especially in the field of privacy-related technologies. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Blog post for Digital Poverty Alliance |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Supporters |
| Results and Impact | Based on our interviews with 100 minoritized ethnic individuals living in England and Scotland, the post discusses how digital poverty, limited digital literacy, and inadequate language support are hindering access to digitalized services for minoritized ethnic communities. It highlights the challenges faced by these communities, such as lack of access to technology, the internet, and digital skills. The post emphasizes the need for tailored support and solutions to bridge this digital divide and ensure equitable access to essential services for all members of society. It also calls for collaborative efforts between government, organizations, and communities to address these issues effectively. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://digitalpovertyalliance.org/events/digital-poverty-limited-digital-literacy-inadequate-langua... |
| Description | Blog post on limitations of data and AI and what this means for Minoritised Ethnic people |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | The PRIME project Research Associate, Dr. Aunam Quyoum, has written a blog post discusses how data systems are embedded in existing patterns of social and racial inequality, and can therefore reproduce discriminatory outcomes. The blog post has been cited and shared with more than 150 policymakers and civil servants in talks that Dr. Quyoum and Dr. Mark Wong conducted in 2022. This includes: 1) the Ofcom internal academic seminar Quyoum and Wong presented at, attended by more than 140 civil servants and officials of UK government's communications regulator, Ofcom, and; 2) the REPHRAIN policy salon session attended by the UK Government's National Crime Agency, Ofcom, and National Police Chiefs Council. The blog post, hosted by the University of Glasgow, outlines a new and more nuanced understanding on the limitations of data and AI and what this means for Minoritised Ethnic people. The piece concludes by critiquing and inviting the readers to question: how reliable is this system, what level of bias might it contain, how fair is this outcome and what inequalities could this perpetuate? The texts of the blog have also been reproduced in a roller banner and leaflets that are displayed in the University of Glasgow's Advanced Research Centre, and have been distributed through interactions and exchange with third sector/community organisations, professional practitioners, public members, and other academics within and outside of our institution. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://sway.office.com/GWCelQvl03sfGQBu?ref=Link |
| Description | Broadcast on TV and Radio about the launch of the PRIME project |
| 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 | PI Dr.Gina Netto communicated the aims and anticipated outcomes of the project on STV in the week beginning 07/02/22. BBC Radio Scotland's flagship news programme covered an interview with Gina Netto on the 15/02/2022. Prof Lynne Baillie spoke on BBC's Lunchtime Live on the same day. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Dissemination events (Edinburgh and London) |
| 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 | The PRIME project convened the first two of three planned dissemination events on 3 December and 29 January in Edinburgh and London respectively. The primary objectives of these events were to present research findings on the impacts of the digitalisation of health, social housing and energy services on minoritised ethnic communities, and to disseminate policy recommendations and innovative harm reduction tools - including a Code of Practice for service providers and developers, and educational videos for minoritised ethnic communities. The events also provided a platform for sharing insights, discussing challenges and identifying strategies for creating more equitable online spaces. Our dissemination events were not solely about sharing research; they were also spaces for collaboration and innovation. The attendees actively engaged in shaping actionable strategies to overcome the challenges faced by minoritised ethnic communities in the context of the digital transformation of services. The events sparked lively discussions and networking among diverse groups - representatives from minoritised ethnic communities, policymakers, regulators and third-sector organisations - all committed to creating more equitable digital spaces. The interactive sessions and shared insights not only validated the project's impact but also paved the way for future partnerships and 'real-world' change. The PRIME project is currently collecting 'impact data' for the two dissemination events, with a view to evaluating, among other things, whether the events and their associated outputs sparked internal discussion at attendees' places or work, or informed internal or external policy. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024,2025 |
| Description | Educational videos for minority ethnic individuals |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Our research revealed that many minority ethnic individuals struggle with the use of online health and social housing services, and face challenges keeping themselves safe online when using social media. Our research further demonstrated that some minority ethnic individuals, upon facing challenges, feel disempowered and are unaware of the actions they could take to tackle the challenges they face. In some cases, the research participants even reported withdrawing from or delaying accessing services. In this context, we produced three educational videos on online health (general practice services), online social housing services, and social media. The objectives of the videos are to: share key research findings regarding the nature of online harms experienced in the context of online health services, online social housing services, and social media usage; identify protective measures that can be taken; and signpost minority ethnic individuals to sources of assistance. The videos have been produced in English and eight other languages spoken by the UK's main minority ethnic communities, as non-proficient English speakers faced particular difficulties with the transition to online services and the use of social media. The eight other languages are as follows: Bengali, Cantonese, Gujarati, Hindi, Mandarin, Punjabi, Somali and Urdu. All of the videos are available to view on YouTube with the exception of the Bengali-language video which will be uploaded in approximately one week. The PRIME project will carry out an evaluation of the videos during the week commencing 10 March. This will involve: a) showing the videos to individuals of Black, Caribbean, Chinese and Pakistani heritages and b) administering a questionnaire and conducting focus groups with these individuals. The video evaluation will assist us to ascertain whether viewing the videos generates impact, for example, in the form of attitudinal (e.g. a greater willingness to consider using online services) or behavioural change (e.g. a greater willingness to seek support when struggling to use online services). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024,2025 |
| URL | https://www.primecommunities.online/videos-1 |
| Description | Engagement with public at East London Mosque (community partner on PRIME) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Team member Mehdi Rizvi visited the East London Mosque (ELM) in Tower Hamlets. ELM is one of PRIME's partner organisations. The aim of the visit was to engage public, inform them about PRIME, and invite them to participate in PRIME's online survey. ELM also continued with this engagement after the activity/visit, by distributing flyers and annoucing about the survey during Friday congregation. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Evaluation of IRESHA Sharecode prototype with Housing Stakeholders |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | The IRESHA Sharecode prototype developed in PRIME was evaluated with relevant housing stakeholders. Evaluation were led by team member Mehdi Rizvi and were done iteratively in two rounds, resulting in improvement of the prototype over time. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024,2025 |
| URL | https://sharecode.primetoolkit.co.uk/ |
| Description | Evaluation of IRESHA Sharecode prototype with Minority Ethnic Users |
| 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 | The IRESHA Sharecode prototype developed in PRIME was evaluated with Minority Ethnic Users, in 1-to-1 sessions. These users were recruited in collaboration with CEMVO Scotland. Evaluation were led by team member Mehdi Rizvi and were done iteratively in two rounds, resulting in improvement of the prototype over time. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024,2025 |
| URL | https://sharecode.primetoolkit.co.uk/ |
| Description | Evaluation of Persona Creator prototype with Stakeholders (Cross-Sectoral) |
| 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 | The Persona Creator prototype developed in PRIME was evaluated with relevant stakeholders from ofgem, ofcom, Shelter, Scot government, Directorate For Digital Health And Care, Centre on the Dynamics of Ethnicity, Energy Systems Catapult and others. Evaluation were led by team member Mehdi Rizvi and were done iteratively in two rounds, resulting in improvement of the prototype over time. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024,2025 |
| URL | https://personacreator.primetoolkit.co.uk/ |
| Description | Input to the NHS RHO Digital Data and Innovation Working Group |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Attend the NHS RHO Digital Data and Innovation Working Group and introduce the PRIME project. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.nhsrho.org/ |
| Description | Invited Panel for SCVO's The Gathering |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | 200 people attended a talk I gave as part of a panel on 'Putting People and Values at the Heart of AI' in the SCVO annual event, the Gathering. The Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO) is the national membership organisation for the voluntary sector in Scotland. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2025 |
| URL | https://scvo.scot/the-gathering/events?utm_source=scvo&utm_medium=website&utm_campaign=search |
| Description | Invited talk at Algorithmic Dwelling Symposium |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | I (Mark Wong) was invited to be a speaker at the Algorithmic Dwelling Symposium at the University of York. I increased awareness and understanding of the PRIME project's aims, particularly in addressing inequalities and harms experienced by Minoritised Ethnic people in digital services, in housing, health, and energy. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Invited talk at University of Almeria |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | I (Mark Wong) was invited to be a speaker at the XXIV Summer School "Online harm and hate crime" module of the University of Almería, Spain. I increased awareness and understanding of using co-design methods to address harms and racism experienced by Minoritised Ethnic people in digital services in the UK. 30 participants attended the talk and were engaged in discussions and Q&A about the project. The professional practitioners, policymakers, and postgraduate students attended showed increased understanding of experiences of racism and the importance of centering the voice of Minoritised Ethnic people in the design of digital services. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Keynote Speech at the National Informatics Conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Siamak Shahandashti gave a (remote) keynote speech on privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs) in the Iranian National Informatics Conference. This lead to extensive discussions on the state of the art in PETs and how they can empower citizens. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2025 |
| URL | https://cs.ipm.ac.ir/nic/1403/ |
| Description | Meeting with Data Communications Company (DCC) |
| 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 | Professor Nazmiye Ozkan (Cranfield University) attended a meeting with DCC to inform them of PRIME project objectives and research programme and discuss how we could have access to smart metering data to see if ethnicity has an impact on different digital energy services. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Meeting with industry practitioners on ethnicity and energy transitions |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | I attended a meeting (9/7/2024) with two experts from CGI and Scottish Southern Electric (SSE) to discuss the lack of understanding on the participation of minority ethnic households in demand flexibility and other energy saving programmes. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Member of Digital Primary Care Evaluation and Research Network, NHS |
| 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 | Engaged with others interested in the use of digital technology in primary care in the NHS |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Member of NHS Race and Health Observatory Digital, Data and Innovation Working Group |
| 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 | Regular meetings with others with a professional interest in creating more equitable digital environments in the NHS |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.nhsrho.org/what-we-do/creating-fair-and-equitable-environments/ |
| Description | Ofcom internal seminar series |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | 140 Ofcom civil servants and policymakers attended a talk given by me (Dr. Mark Wong) and project Research Associate, Dr. Aunam Quyoum, both at University of Glasgow. The talk was part of the Ofcom internal/academic seminar series. Our presentation introduced how our multi-institutional PRIME project examines online harms and bias of AI and data systems on Minoritised Ethnic people in digital health, housing, and energy services in the UK. Wong and Quyoum discussed the impact and potential inequalities arising from digitisation (such as use of data and algorithmic decision-making). We also discussed the potential of co-design approach to develop fair and inclusive AI & digital tools with Minoritised Ethnic communities and multi-stakeholders to mitigate discriminatory bias. The talk sparked questions and lively discussions in the form of Q&A and messages in Teams. There were also individual follow-ups from Ofcom staff who were interested to learn more about the findings of the project and collaborate in the future. We were invited to present about our project findings in the future, and Ofcom indicated interests in collaborations and will reach out when academic expertise is required, such as by their online safety team, taking charge of the implementation of the Online Safety Bill, who were present at the talk. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | PRIME Website |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | A temporary website for the PRIME project has been available since the beginning of the project, however it did not collect any analytical data. More recently we have engaged a web designer to create a website as well as a logo and branding. The website will collect visitor numbers and we will be able to report on them next year. At the moment the website aims to be a useful resource for anyone who wants to learn more about the project, in particular for participants who take part in the project's online survey and interviews. Later on, resources that are developed through the project will be available there. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022,2023 |
| URL | https://www.primecommunities.online/ |
| Description | Participate in the healthcare technology workshop at University of Strathclyde |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Dr Wei Pang attended the healthcare technology workshop at the University of Strathclyde on 16 February 2024. Participants of the workshop include researchers from several Scottish universities and people from industry. He proposed the topic of responsible AI for healthcare and protecting ethnic minority groups to be discussed during the workshop. A more generic topic (responsible AI for healthcare) was adopted as one of the four topics discussed towards the end of the workshop. The topic has attracted a group of researchers for discussion. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Participation in an online seminar relating to engagement between Scottish Government and academics |
| 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 | I (Prof Gina Netto, PI of the PRIME project) was invited as one of three speakers to share my experiences of engaging with the Scottish Government in an online seminar organised by Scottish Policy Research Exchange for the Scottish Government titled 'Unpacking 'impact' in academic-policy engagement.' As part of my contribution to the event, I shared my experience of engaging with government in multiple ways including through research projects commissioned by Scottish Government, as a member of various advisory groups, as an expert witness to parliamentary enquiries by the Scottish Government's Equal Opportunities and Human Rights Committee and through a conference I had organised at the Royal Society of Edinburgh titled 'Brexit, Migration and Labour Market Participation in Scotland. This long history of engagement was helpful in securing the support of governmental bodies for the PRIME Project, including the Scottish Government Housing Directorate, the Equalities Division and close partner organisations such as Public Health Scotland and the Convention for Scottish Local Housing Authorities. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023,2024 |
| Description | Poster Presentation at the SICSA Cyber Security, Privacy, and Trust Research Showcase |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The PRIME team members presented a poster focusing on analysis of Ethnic Minorities' Sentiment and Trust in Online Services within the Cyber Security, Privacy, and Trust Research Showcase, organised by SICSA at University of Edinburgh on 26/02/2024. The poster presented the work done so far in PRIME on this topic as well as on-going and future work. The PRIME team members who contributed to the poster were Ghosh S, Chen K, Rizvi M, Yuan Y, Edmondson A, Baillie L, Pang W, Shahandashti SF, and it was presented by Chen K and Edmondson A. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://www.sicsa.ac.uk/events/cyber-security-privacy-trust-research-showcase/ |
| Description | Poster Presentations for The National Robotarium |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The PRIME team (Medhi and Yingfang) presented two posters introducing the PRIME project. Many people expressed interest in the posters, which clearly introduced how machine learning methods can be helpful for social science research, including a machine learning research framework. From our perspective, we were able to raise awareness among more people about what machine learning can do for those without deep knowledge of AI and ML. Some attendees engaged in detailed discussions with us, and through those discussions, we explained the motivations behind PRIME in detail and how different machine learning methods (such as text mining and graph neural networks) can be used to address various problems. Based on the feedback we received on-site, we learned that most people found our research question valuable and were intrigued by the use of machine learning in the PRIME project. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Presentation at REPHRAIN Showcase 2023 (19 Jan 2023) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Presentation about the PRIME project to delegates from industry, academia, government bodies and regulators. The government and regulator delegates included representatives from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, the National Crime Agency, Ofcom, the National Cyber Security Centre, and the Home Office. The presentation and the subsequent Q&A session sparked a debate regarding the conceptualisation of online harms. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://www.rephrain.ac.uk/rephrain-showcase-january-2023/ |
| Description | Presentation at REPHRAIN Showcase 2023 (19 Jan 2023) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Presentation about the PRIME project to delegates from industry, academia, government bodies and regulators. The government and regulator delegates included representatives from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, the National Crime Agency, Ofcom, the National Cyber Security Centre, and the Home Office. The presentation and the subsequent Q&A session sparked a debate regarding the conceptualisation of online harms. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://www.rephrain.ac.uk/rephrain-showcase-january-2023/ |
| Description | Presentation at REPHRAIN by PhD student/research team member Eunice Anteh |
| 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 | This presentation was delivered to REPHRAIN as part of their Showcase and covered the aim, rationale, scope and methods which Eunice Anteh has designed with her supervisors as part of her doctoral research into the experiences of African refugee women in digital mental health services. Attendees showed a high level of interest on the topic through many questions and asked to be kept updated on the progress of the research through further participation. Some attendees shared some resources and helpful suggestions for the research. The presentation also inspired interest in future collaborations and initiatives. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Presenting PRIME at the Celebrating Spaces event |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This was a University of York open day for connecting early-career researchers with one another and with external audience from the industry and the general public. Sebati Ghosh presented the PRIME project and its activities and goals. More than 50 people from a mixture of backgrounds attended the talk and the presentation lead to engaging discussions on how some of the problems faced by minoritised ethnic communities are actually much wider issues. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Press release by HWU at the launch and towards the end of the project |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | A press release was publicised by HWU to communicate the aims and intended outcomes of the PRIME project in February 2022. A second press release to communicate the main findings and implications of the project was released on 12th March 2025. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022,2025 |
| URL | https://www.hw.ac.uk/news/2025/digitalising-essential-services-risks-widening-inequalities-for-minor... |
| Description | Protecting Minority Ethnic Communities Online: Presentation to Tower Hamlets GP Care Group CIC |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Prof Ozkan gave a presentation to Tower Hamlets GP Care Group CIC on 21/11/2022. There were over 10 general practice managers attending the meeting. In my talk, I emphasized what PRIME project was aiming to do, which included advancing understanding the challenges they have been experiencing through increased digitalisation of services. This sparked discussions about how the PRIME project outputs can contribute to addressing these challenges and informing policy making. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | REPHRAIN policy salon invited talk |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | 15 civil servants and representatives of government/public sector organisation attended a talk given by me (Mark Wong) and our project Research Associate, Aunam Quyoum, both at University of Glasgow, about the project. The talk was part of a series of REPHRAIN's monthly hour-long "Policy Salons" held online, as part of a new initiative aimed at encouraging knowledge exchange and open discussions between policy makers, law enforcement agencies and REPHRAIN, the national centre of excellence on cybersecurity based at University of Bristol. In attendance of the talk were representatives from UK Government's National Crime Agency (social-techncial group, cybersecurity), Ofcom (research team on violence against women and girls), National Police Chief's Councils (Violence against women and girls taskforce), and REPHRAIN (deputy director). The talk was followed by a Q&A about the project's research and how it engages with Minoritised Ethnic people and community organisations in co-design of data and AI. Questions and discussions were also had around the role of trust in digital services and underlying systemic racism in such systems. Further information on co-design and engagement with marginalised communities were requested by civil servants/policy representatives in attendance. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Seminar at The National Robotarium and Edinburgh Centre for Robotics |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Siamak Shahandashti gave a seminar on privacy-enhancing technologist, and the challenges and approaches in designing and deploying such technologies. This lead into extended discussions on the role of privacy by design in end users's trust of digital systems. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Spotlight Podcast |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | I (Mark Wong) was interviewed for a podcast series, Spotlight, hosted by the University of Glasgow. I discussed the harms and bias in AI and data on Minoritised Ethnic people, with podcast host, Prof. Graeme Roy (Dean of External Engagement, College of Social Science, University of Glasgow). In the podcast, I also added new understanding to the importance of how we collect ethnicity data and information to inform public policy - and how the methods we use to collect and process information can themselves lead to biases in decision-making. The podcast is available on major podcast platforms, including Spotify, Apple Podcast, Google Podcast. The podcast series is widely listened to by Scottish policy makers, civil servants, and general public, with on average more than a hundred listeners per episode. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://open.spotify.com/episode/2pAXbvVrdl8wNUoo3QUtzN |
| Description | Workshop on findings of housing research findings in England |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | I (Gina Netto, PI of the project) organised the workshop in collaboration with the Manchester-based Caribbean African Health Network, one of the community partners of the PRIME project. 50 participants attended the workshop to share their views and responses to the project's research findings on access to social housing. The participants included practitioners from housing associations and community organisations. Follow the workshop, many participants reported increased awareness of issues relating to the engagement of minority ethnic communities and actions which they could take in their own organisations to help individuals from these communities increase access to their services and demonstrate accountability. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Workshop on housing research findings with stakeholders in Scotland |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | I (Gina Netto), PI of the project, organised an online workshop with Shelter Scotland and the Caribbean and African Health Network to raise awareness of the project findings relating to access and use of digitalised social housing services. Participants included representatives from Government, local authorities, housing associations, homelessness charities and researchers. Discussion focused on measures which were already in place to increase access to such services among minoritised ethnic communities as well as further actions which could be taken either singly or in collaboration with others. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | meeting with Data Communications Company |
| 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 | I attended a meeting with DCC to inform them of PRIME project objectives and research programme and discuss how we could have access to smart metering data to see if ethnicity has an impact on different digital energy services. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |