SPRITE+ 2026 Expert Fellows Meeting: Attendee Highlights
We were thrilled to welcome 30+ SPRITE+ Members and Expert Fellows to our annual Expert Fellows Meeting exploring 'what is TIPSS, and what would it mean to do TIPSS by design?'.
The meeting began with an opening address from SPRITE+ Director Mark Elliot, outlining our aims for the rest of the event, and posing questions on how we can define TIPSS and what is meant by 'TIPSS-by-design'.
Event highlights included talks on digital responsibility, TIPSS adoption in the era of converging technologies, and neurotechnology and TIPSS, in addition to creative breakout sessions on envisioning a TIPSS framework.
It's always such a joy to bring SPRITE+ Members and Expert Fellows from various disciplines together in one room. The two days were packed with fascinating conversations, creative ideation and knowledge exchange - hear from several of our Expert Fellows on their experience of attending below.
Neeranjan Chitare (Research Scholar, Birmingham City University)
I decided to attend the SPRITE+ Expert Fellows Meeting because it genuinely felt right up my street. In just one or two days, the event brought together so many things that a researcher and academic looks for: opportunities to network, hear different perspectives and ideas, engage with key issues, and learn from others.
This was my first Expert Fellows Meeting, and I found the experience extremely valuable. My main takeaway from the first day was just how ubiquitous AI has become. It is increasingly difficult to imagine many aspects of our lives and work without it. At the same time, our discussions around trust and privacy highlighted how meticulous and thoughtful we need to be as AI continues to develop and become embedded in society.
The second day gave me an opportunity to think more deeply about how Trust, Identity, Privacy, Security and Safety (TIPSS) are interconnected rather than separate challenges. My overall takeaway from the meeting was a real sense of urgency: this is the right time to act. Everyone has a role to play in shaping a trustworthy and secure digital future; otherwise, we risk simply becoming victims of the technologies and threats developing around us.
Arianna Schuler Scott (Director, Cyber Innovation at Safenetics)
This year's SPRITE+ Expert Fellows Meeting was all about how to turn Trust, Identity, Privacy, Security and Safety (TIPPS) into a framework. Why do we love frameworks? They provide structure and help us set agendas for discussion across different experts, sectors, and groups of people. "What does a TIPSS framework look like?", you may ask. The good news is that there are a lot of options.
I have been part of the SPRITE+ network since 2021, winning a poster show that catapulted me into that year's Expert Fellows Meeting. I met all sorts of people - people writing policy, people leading companies, people running research projects, people with money to spend, and of course many people with all sorts of ideas for how that money could be spent.
Of the absolutely top notch speaker list, there were two talks that I absolutely adored: Dr A. Piazza on Mapping the Metaverse Minefield, and Dr S. Lee on Neurotechnology. I highly recommend that you check out the Metaverse paper for a stellar analysis and utterly compelling vison on how trust, identity, privacy and security interact (i.e., their hierarchical dependencies). While I am not a brain surgeon, I found that the example of Neurotech as a way to explain how important a common goal is to be comforting and highly educational. I really felt like I had learned something new, and came away thinking quite deeply about how TIPSS can make innovation trustworthy.
All in all, this year's meetup was a joy to be part of. SPRITE+ has created a space where deep collaboration happens, and a place where actioning big ideas is taken seriously. It is a luxury, to be able to throw ideas like this around with people in positions to make the work happen. I left with an immense appreciation for the privilege to be able to do so.
Lynsay Shepherd (Reader in Cybersecurity and Human-Computer Interaction, Abertay University)
I attended the Expert Fellows Meeting because it was a useful opportunity to network with others in the security and privacy space and learn about their work - particularly useful because I come from a small institution. This was the first Expert Fellows Meeting I had been able to attend, and I was particularly pleased to see it held in Scotland, which made it an easy and appealing event to commit to.
Lizzie Coles-Kemp’s talk on “Digital Responsibility: From Theory Into Practice” was particularly interesting on day one, and the resulting conversations on how to engage different user groups into considering the importance of security and privacy measures. On day two, I enjoyed (and was slightly terrified) by Sieun Lee’s talk on Neurotech and TIPSS – there’s a lot of unexplored issues and potential threats in this space.
Overall, it was a valuable experience, a chance to reflect on future challenges, and I would be keen to attend future events like this!
Edward Apeh (Principal Academic in Computing, Bournemouth University)
The SPRITE+ Expert Fellows Meeting is always a valuable opportunity to reconnect with colleagues, meet new people and explore emerging challenges in Trust, Identity, Privacy, Security and Safety. Having attended previous meetings, I wanted to return this year because the focus on developing a formalised TIPSS framework addressed the need to understand how these interconnected issues can be brought together within a coherent approach.
The talks and breakout discussions introduced different perspectives and gave me the opportunity to contribute to the framework’s development by considering how technical, behavioural, social and policy perspectives could inform the investigation and evaluation of emerging technologies. I returned from Edinburgh with fresh research ideas, valuable new contacts and a stronger appreciation of how the SPRITE+ community can help develop practical and socially relevant responses to technological change.
