Deep Dive 1: Trustworthy Digital Identity
In conjunction with the Alan Turing Institute
Overview
The concept of identity underpins many aspects of trusted and trustworthy secure digital systems.
SPRITE+, in conjunction with the Trustworthy Digital Identity programme at the Alan Turing Institute, aims to support the development of a global community of interest in digital identity. Leveraging the strengths and connections of the existing ATI programme (including their Gates Foundation grant), this community will develop and share research and practice relating to understanding and mitigating the technical, social, and other risks of/to digital identity.
This collaboration involves the development of understanding the problems and challenges of trustworthy national digital identity systems, and input into the development of appropriate methodologies, techniques, tools, and processes to address these challenges.
The project is multidisciplinary and considers systems in the context of both developed and developing nations and seek to understand commonalities and divergence in the problems and solutions. It will consider social, technical, economic, and legal dimensions and bring together those with necessary expertise to deliver knowledge and impact.
Research Questions
How can we understand resilience in digital identity systems?
What are the scenarios though which digital identity systems can be breached or compromised?
Who what and how are individuals and groups excluded from/by digital identity systems?
The project aims to coordinate a range of activity including:
(a) A rapid evidence review (undertaken in Jan-March 2024) with global stakeholders to identify good practice and gaps and set the research agenda for future investments.
(b) A deep dive project. Lasting up to 2 years employing a research associate to address some of the questions identified as gaps in the scoping review.
(c) Up to six workshops where policymakers and researchers will together explore findings from the evidence review and other relevant research, each resulting in a summary report and recommendations.
(d) An international conference on digital identity to stimulate conversation and showcase research of international colleagues working in digital identity.
To date: 26th November 2025 the following activities have taken place:
Rapid evidence review
Scoping workshop in May 2024
Employed a researcher commencing May 2025
'Resilience in Digital Identity - Systematic Risks from Emerging Technologies' workshop on 9th July 2025.
'Threat Modelling for Sleeper Agents in Agentic AI: Attack Chains and Resilience for Digital Identity Systems' workshop on 26th November 2025.
Get involved
Join the Trustworthy Digital Identity Community of Interest. Sign up here.