ICO launches grants programme to promote data protection & privacy research
Melanie May | 8 June 2017 | News
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has launched a Grants Programme to promote and support independent research and solutions focused on privacy and data protection issues.
Under the programme, the ICO will award a number of grants each year between £20,000 and £100,000.
The ICO Grants Programme’s objectives are to:
- Support and encourage research and privacy enhancing solutions in significant areas of data protection risk, focused on projects that will make a real difference to the UK public
- Increase awareness of privacy enhancing solutions with data controllers across the UK
- Improve understanding of how individuals view privacy issues, interactions with new technologies and promote better public awareness
- Promote uptake and application of research results by relevant stakeholders, including policy makers
- Develop existing privacy research capacity in academic and not-for-profit sectors
Proposals do not need to be technology based but must have practical application and provide real world solutions that are of clear public benefit to the UK.
Elizabeth Denham, Information Commissioner, said:
“Information Rights evolve with time. The new Grants Programme is designed to give practical research and policy a stronger voice in this evolution.
“At the core of our new Information Rights Strategic Plan is the objective of promoting trust for the public. Current research shows that 75% of the public don’t trust the way that their personal data is used. I want to see that number reduce and that requires evidence of what is causing the problem and well considered ideas for how to address it.”Advertisement
Eligible organisations are invited to bid for grants for independent research and projects that meet one or more of the five strategic goals set out in the ICO’s Information Rights Strategic Plan:
- To increase the public’s trust and confidence in how data is used and made available.
- Improve standards of information rights practice through clear, inspiring and targeted engagement and influence.
- Maintain and develop influence within the global information rights regulatory community.
- Stay relevant, provide excellent public service and keep abreast of evolving technology.
- Enforce the laws we help shape and oversee.
In particular, the ICO is seeking proposals that align with goals 1, 2 and 4, and this year is seeking design or accountability solutions that focus on key privacy challenges or the privacy implications of new technologies such as big data, artificial intelligence, machine learning, social scoring and blockchain. It is also interested in projects that address the privacy challenges related to children and the internet.
The deadline for applications is 5pm on 28th July. Further information about the Grants Programme, including eligibility, funding and outcome expectations is available on a dedicated page on the ICO website.
A webinar discussing the programme in more detail will also take place from 2pm-3pm on 15th June.
About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.