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The DIGIT Lab Newsletter

DIGIT Lab's monthly newsletter provides regular updates of DIGIT Lab wide activities, upcoming events and successes of our researchers. The DIGIT Lab is an EPSRC Next Stage

Digital Economy Research Centre delivering a 5-year research programme backed by £12.4M in funding.

In this month's edition of the DIGIT Lab Newsletter we will i

ntroduce you to the DIGIT Lab's

Independent Advisory Board

(IAB) members

, fill you in on this month's

newsletter highlight

and invite you to

save your space at the launch

.

Meet the IAB Members

The IAB Board convenes biannually and is comprised of 8 members who are senior representatives from industry and academia in the UK and internationally. The board acts as the formal governance of the project with the members providing advice on the strategic direction and activities of the project. The members also ensure equality, diversity and inclusion is embedded into all DIGIT Lab’s activities.

The IAB board members are:

• IAB Chair, Sally Howes (a non-executive chair and director)

• Christine Ashton (Director, Cogventive Limited)

• Christian Bornfeld (CTO, executive board Vice-Chair, ABN Amro)

• Anthony Finkelstein (President of City, University of London)

• Yvonne Gallagher (Digital Director, National Audit Office)

• Malcolm Moore (Technology News Editor, Financial Times)

• Ajith Parlikad (Reader, Asset Management Group, IFM University of Cambridge)

• Kristina Shea (Professor, ETH Zurich)

Visit our website to find out more about DIGIT Lab's IAB members.

Highlight of the Month

Publication in Nature Food

is

this month's newsletter highlight.

DIGIT Lab team members Roger Maull and Gerard Parr are amongst the authors of a paper recently published in Nature Food, titled 'A trust framework for digital food systems'. Which presents the proposed solution for digital transformation within a "digital food system" and how it will drive sustainable business growth and secure wider public benefits.

See the proposed framework in 'Fig.1:Model food data trust framework' below.

The model food data trust framework from a paper titled 'A trust framework for digital food systems'. Source: Nature Food.

Read the publication summary and follow the link provided to find out more.

Publication Summary:

The National Food Strategy recognised that “digital technology” has the power to transform the food system for the public good, for instance by creating a safer food environment (improved track and trace), driving the food system to net zero (enabled consumer choice of low carbon cost food), reducing food poverty (high productivity food systems) or reducing food waste (matching food supply to demand).

However, the full potential of a "digital food system” can only be realised if permissioned data can flow across complex supply chains and between multiple commercial (farms to retailers) and regulatory actors (FSA, HMRC). Governing this exchange of data whilst enabling a public good as well as protecting commercial and personal interests remains one of the key challenges across the digital economy. Our proposed solution are "data trust frameworks”.

Our solution realises that technology alone is unlikely to transform the food system, transformation requires new modalities of data governance and trusted collaboration. The article builds on the interdisciplinary work of the EPSRC-funded Internet of Food Things Network Plus and a collaborative project with law firm Pinsent Masons that was funded by the Food Standards Agency.

You can read this paper here

.

Save your space at the launch

You are invited to the launch event for the DIGIT Lab, an EPSRC Next Stage Digital Economy Centre, on Tuesday 21st September at 10.30am on Zoom.The launch will be an opportunity for the Centre's Director, academic leads and industry guests to outline DIGIT Lab's achievements to date, its ongoing research, the four core DIGIT Lab themes and the centre’s research questions.Please register for the event at Eventbrite and share the link with anyone who would be interested.

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