New centre to address challenges of digital citizenship
A new £9M research centre that will allow citizens across the country to grasp the possibilities of the digital revolution has been announced.
28 October 2020
The Centre for Digital Citizens (CDC), led by Newcastle and Northumbria Universities, will explore how digital technologies can support areas.
These areas include public health and wellbeing, community engagement, citizen safety and technology-enhanced lifelong learning.
The project has been funded with £3.7m from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), with matched funding from the universities and industry partners.
Led by Professor David Kirk, Director of Newcastle University’s Open Lab, the new centre will bring together 28 academics and 18 post-doctoral researchers across the two universities.
The CDC will work with citizens to co-design technologies to support and evaluate ‘smart’ and ‘data-rich’ living in urban, rural and coastal areas across the North East of England and beyond.
The technological innovations will be co-created between a network of academic, industrial, public and third sector partners, with citizens supporting the co-creation and delivery of research.
The project will be working in partnership with local and global organisations including Newcastle City Council, NHS Digital, International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and BBC R&D.
The Centre for Digital Citizens is one of six centres announced today as part of a £29m investment from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), the body which incorporates the EPSRC.
You can read the full press release here: https://www.ncl.ac.uk/press/articles/latest/2020/10/centrefordigitalcitizens/