Information technology
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- How can we better understand novel uses or applications of AI in the geospatial ecosystem, such as in the analysis of Earth Observation and Population Movement data, 3D visualisation, and climate modelling?
- What new and emerging technologies (including cloud, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality) will impact geospatial skills and innovation, and access to geospatial data in the future, and how could the UK leverage these technologies?
- How is the use of Age Assurance technologies for the child online safety sector likely to change over the next 5 and 10 years?
- What are the current approaches to measuring the accuracy of Age Assurance technologies/ solutions?
- What is the prevalence and associated costs of Age Assurance technology/ solutions across industry?
- How can AI be used to identify harmful content?
- What risk is there that generative AI evolves such that the content it generates can avoid detection faster than tools can be developed to detect it? How can international and industry collaboration limit this risk?
- How will the use of generative AI to create ‘deepfakes’ that manipulate people’s likeness (face, body, voice) evolve? What is the psychological impact of being deepfaked, and what harmful uses (e.g. intimate image abuse, fraud, reputational damage) will develop and increase?
- How will AI affect existing kinds of harmful online content (e.g. online abuse, scams) and what new kinds of online harmful content might it give rise to?
- AI will democratise access to capabilities that used to be expensive or hard to access, and create new capabilities that didn’t previously exist. As barriers (e.g. technical skills, access to specialist equipment) are reduced, AI use will increase. What is the prevalence of AI generated content online?
- How would a shift towards interoperable / decentralised social media (aka ‘the fediverse’) alter how disinformation spreads, and the ability to be able to address it?
- How should enriched data produced from the fusion/linkage of multiple data sources be presented to users to enable rapid and effective decision making?
- How can policing advance its interconnectivity both within policing (e.g., AI supported call and response routing), on multi-modal devices, and across organisations?
- What methods can policing use to enable data fusion or linkage across datasets to enrich the evidence intelligence picture across both structured and unstructured sources?
- What are the value and limits of emerging AI technologies such as ChatGPT in policing?
- How can the police service further develop capabilities in automatic redaction and selective extraction from phones?
- What tools are available to support the police service with compliance to analytic or data governance standards?
- What analytical tools can relieve the police workforce of administrative tasks?
- How can the police service maximise opportunities in Robotic Process Automation to streamline analytical processes in the near-term?
- How can policing best provide Chief Officers and deployed officers with real-time information about workforce and assets, including remote briefing capabilities and file transfer?
- How can policing best implement and utilise situational awareness within policing practices?
- How can policing capitalise on geospatial technologies to deliver new information forms that can enhance situational awareness and decision making?
- How can the use of low orbit satellites augment existing sensing capabilities in policing?
- What, if any, are the emerging risks to personal privacy and victim intrusion from new digital forensic technologies?
- How can policing improve the process and workflow surrounding digital forensics, including democratising the ability to run safe, rapid and effective forensics at a crime scene?
- What is the best-in-class digital tooling available for the forensic analysis of text, media and metadata?
- What emerging biological or behavioural measurements and calculations can be used to ascertain or impersonate a person’s identity?
- What counter technologies may be used to trick large scale audio-visual data processing and analysis systems used by the police and how can they be mitigated?
- What computational and analytical techniques can deliver accurate, large scale, automated image capture, processing, and amalgamation, while maintaining privacy and proportionality?
- How can policing maintain the integrity of the evidential chain when processing and analysing audio-visual data?
- How can policing overcome challenges around the collection, processing and storage of (usually large) files from audio-visual materials, including when working with still compared to moving images?
- What cybersecurity threats exist for the use of drones in policing and how can they be mitigated?
- What technologies can mitigate work-related trauma experienced by police staff? For example, using computer vision technologies to reduce manual assessments of child exploitation images.
- What emerging technologies, such as wearables, can help identify and enable earlier interventions for struggling workforce members before they reach crisis point, for example, through the analysis of psychophysiological data?
- What science and technology led interventions are available to encourage and support safer driving?
- What technologies can be used to prevent crimes online, including the online mobilisation towards violence and terrorism?
- In what areas of policing can we democratise the science and technology so that it can be used by many non-specialists?
- What are the opportunities of emerging technologies (quantum and AI) to revolutionise our ability to map underground assets?
- How can policing utilise smart assistants, such as to manage the logistics of police deployment and tasking or to ensure that victims and witnesses receive the best possible support?
- How do other customer-centric organisations mitigate issues surrounding uncertainty of service delivery which policing could look to adopt?
- How can policing demonstrate an end-to-end chain of evidence across the criminal justice system (e.g., using blockchain technology)?
- In terms of horizon scanning, how do we best develop approaches to identifying new types of harm online, or new and emergent platforms of technologies (e.g. virtual reality) where online harm can manifest?
- How can we better join up digital standards with UK research and innovation sectors to ensure that digital standards are a valued element of the innovation lifecycle in the UK?
- What does research say about digital sectors or countries that pose the greatest risk of disruption to international cooperation over the use and governance of digital technology?
- What factors drive fragmentation and consolidation, respectively, in internet architecture and the international digital space?
- Horizon scanning on the scenarios for digital and tech dominance over the near- and medium-term future.
- What are the most relevant potential changes in the external security and resilience risk environment?
- What broader science/tech sectors have the most spill-overs with the telecoms sector?
- Where are the opportunities for international collaboration to increase the UK’s role and influence over the development of next generation telecommunications technologies - including advanced 5G and beyond?
- What new skills/professions are likely to emerge as a result of future telecoms technologies and how can the UK be best placed to exploit them?
- Which of the future technologies will the UK have a comparative advantage in or face particular challenges in regard to global competition? How can the UK build strategic advantage in key technologies and how can the benefits be measured?
- Which of the future technologies will the UK have a comparative advantage in or face particular challenges in regard to global competition? How can the UK build strategic advantage in key technologies and how can the benefits be measured?
- Evaluate the technologies that will drive smart networks: evidencing the utilisation of the UK’s lead in AI and Edge technology to develop self-organising, secure and highly optimised network software.
- Evaluate the technologies that will drive terabit networks: supporting the development of next-gen fibre technology, leveraging opto-electronics, encoding and graphene expertise to deploy a terabit network.
- What are the potential unintended consequences of digital technology (5G, ORAN, Fibre, etc) policies and to what extent could the market mitigate them?
- To what extent does innovation and competition between companies promote network technology evolution and interoperability (e.g. between systems, equipment, etc)? For further relevant questions on market competition and cooperation see BDUK section 2.
- What impact do open internet regulations have on the efficient deployment and use of full fibre and 5G networks to meet the growing connectivity demand? How do changes in these regulations impact network investments, deployment and use - e.g. impact on traffic growth, traffic management, costs for ISPs and requirements of new use cases?
- How can government funding be used most effectively to support future adoption of important technologies?
- Do firms that adopt one frontier technology, such as 5G, also adopt other cutting-edge technologies?
- Given that Wi-Fi is the go-to access method between fibre to the premises (and Gigabit capability) and user devices: (i) identify options for future evolution of Wi-Fi technologies and network architecture in premises (domestic and business) that will match the data capacity of fibre? (ii) what are the spectrum implications and options for transitioning to the desirable spectrum requirements (e.g. using spectrum above 50 GHz or LiFi).
- How might AI contribute to future spectrum regulation/management?
- What are the impacts of 5G on users’ day-to-day lives? How will people and businesses use this connectivity?
- What are the advantages, disadvantages, and limitations in using non-terrestrial technology to support the expansion of mobile coverage across the UK?
- How much capacity do UK centres have, and is it sufficient for domestic uses? How much reliance is there on data centres abroad? How might technological advances such as in the field of AI affect future demand for data centre processing power and can the sector cope with such changes?
- What are the potential cases and market failures Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PET) might help to resolve? What are the potential barriers to their adoption? What are some of the most adopted PETs in use in the UK?
- How can governance and standards frameworks encourage greater inclusion and security across the ecosystem? What would a good framework for measuring inclusion in digital identity markets look like? How can we minimise security and privacy risks within digital identity solutions?
- How inclusive is the evolving digital identity ecosystem? What are the barriers to inclusion within the system? What are the benefits of digital identity to individuals and businesses? How can we ensure the UK’s digital identity ecosystem is secure? Within the current market which groups are disproportionately affected or are more likely to become left behind as digital identity solutions become more widespread? What are some of the consequences of having excluded groups? Are there differences across different sectors or use cases? How can we build trust in digital identity solutions?
- What measures and prioritisation tools can be used to better evaluate and target cyber risks with government interventions?
- How can we build agility into software policy to ensure policy remains dynamic?
- Detailed data on companies that specialise in the provision of AI services in life sciences.
- What are the most common connected technology convergence points we will see realised in the UK in the next 5-10 years? What are the applications of these converged connected technologies? Which sectors will be most impacted? Will there be an increased cyber attack surface for converged technologies? How can the cyber security of converged technologies be managed?
- How can connected technologies can be secured when liability and responsibility of product security is unclear, due to convergence of technologies and systems. I.e., taking a system-of-systems approach, how can holistic and robust cyber security be ensured? What is the series of measures required to safeguard the whole system? For example, taxonomy of cyber security risks and threats from the research phase through to product development, deployment and embedding with other technologies and systems. How could the UK produce a world-leading approach to securing emerging technologies through an end-to-end process?
- What is the most effective method for incentivising responsible technology design, in terms of cyber security? What are the barriers or blockers for using secure by design principles for cyber security of emerging connected technologies? Where have we seen successes in adopting secure by design principles for connected technologies? Is there a gold-standard or case study where security of a product has been considered during early inception? Has led to greater security of the product and fewer breaches?
- What are the critical emerging technologies on the 5, 10, and 15-year horizon which have the potential to change cyberspace or impact on the UK’s cyber-power and strategic advantage? What novel critical applications of existing technologies could have the potential to transform cyberspace? How should emerging technologies be prioritised for cyber security research?
- What is the most effective measure for cyber security upskilling and embedding that the UK government promotes or could promote?
- What are the economic incentives that drive cyber security?
- How effective is UK government messaging and guidance on adopting cybersecurity? Do some messages land better than others? Why? With whom?
- How might automation, machine learning/AI change the way in which cybersecurity services are currently delivered? Do these changes lead to a reduction or even an increase in demand for cyber security skills, products and services
- How are cyber security careers perceived and how is this changing overtime? What can be done to mitigate negative perceptions of cyber security careers?
- In what ways can cyber security effectively share the UK technology talent pool with other priority industries?
- What are the systemic linkages between the cyber security skills shortage and other government cyber interventions?
- Are there different hierarchies, professional groups or user types and behaviours that aid or block cyber security implementation? How do we best understand this both quantitatively and qualitatively?
- What evidence is there for not embedding adequate cyber security in highly commercialised or direct-to-consumer tech? What evidence is there on cybersecurity not being embedded adequately in sectors with lower regulation?
- How could incentives for cyber security adoption and change, to reducible risk, be posed to organisations? Is there a need for different types of incentivisation for different sectors or differing sizes of organisations?
- What are the most appropriate measures for adoption? What do different measures look like for cost effectiveness, availability of information or resource, ease of implementation, prospect of mitigated data/financial losses due to cyber breaches?
- What cyber interventions that DSIT or NCSC runs are most likely to be adopted and what is the positive impact of these? What drivers exist for the adoption of these? What are the barriers to adoption? Do sectors with more stringent regulatory measures see higher adoption of cyber security principles than non-regulatory driven protocols? What other non-UK government frameworks matter most to organisations?
- What are the systemic links between the growth of the UK cyber sector and the efficacy of cyber interventions? Does growth of the cyber sector have an inverse relationship with the impact of interventions? What are the reinforcement and control loops in this system?
- What behavioural and attitudinal considerations can be mapped in this area and how do we encourage good behaviours across organisations?
- What cyber interventions that DSIT or NCSC runs are the most effective at reducing cyber incidents and improving cyber resilience? How effective are the NIS Regulations at securing operators of essential services in the UK? How effective is carrying out each of the 10 Steps to Cyber Security at reducing cyber risk?
- How does increased data usage affect power consumption at server and data centres?
- What are some of the emergent technologies which will increase the need for gigabit connectivity for (i) residential premises; (ii) business premises?
- "What is the interaction between mobile and fixed connectivity? What is the role of 4G mobile connectivity in people’s online access compared to broadband/fixed access? Are there certain benefits or disbenefits which are only achieved with both mobile and fixed connectivity?"
- How has gigabit connectivity and the digital harmonisation, or moving a variety of services onto one system, of local public services affected; (i) how they’re delivered, (ii) how they’re used, (iii) future coverage within that local area, (iv) technological innovation within that local authority?
- What will gigabit capable speeds not be sufficient for, and will this interact with overall network capacity and/or government ambitions? Does this differ for other characteristics of connectivity such as bandwidth and latency?
- How does the benefits of connectivity change for the end user when there is an increase from superfast to gigabit compared to a change from sub-superfast to gigabit and sub-superfast to superfast?
- How does the UK compare to other countries in respect to 4G mobile coverage? In particular, how does the UK compare to G7 and EU countries? What factors contribute to this? What can the UK learn from 4G mobile roll-out in other countries?
- How might Artificial Intelligence tools such as language models be useful in:i) processing delivery data ii) increasing understanding of geospatial areas and associated risks of delivery?
- What is the potential for future technologies in delivering mobile connectivity more efficiently and effectively than contemporary technologies e.g. low earth orbit satellite technology? What are the advantages and disadvantages of these technologies, including their feasibility and possible barriers to implementation?
- How can Quality of Service data be quantified and measured as a consistent metric across BDUK delivery?
- What are the barriers to delivery of fibre-to-the-premises across the UK? What possible solutions exist to these barriers?
- How do network providers differ in the surveying methods used and what efficiencies do particular methods have?
- Detailed company data on both current expenditure and investment in AI.
- Which risks from AI are the most urgent to mitigate?
- What risk assessment methods are best suited to risks from AI?
- What is needed to enable the public sector to adopt AI?
- Compute: What are the latent needs of the UK’s AI ecosystem for compute resource?
- How can we better understand the barriers to AI adoption?
- What patterns are we likely to see in AI diffusion and adoption throughout the economy?
- What innovative approaches to data in education could increase staff capacity and reduce workload?
- What models of management and professional development of teaching and nonteaching roles support efficient and safe use of data and technology including AI?
- What approaches or innovation are needed to support the efficient handling of data within education settings?
- What are the most robust methodologies for assessing the effectiveness of technology used for education?
- How do device ratios impact students and teachers?
- How can we adapt research methodologies to robustly measure the impact of technology in education, given its fast-moving nature?
- How can the impact of digital technology be robustly measured, and implemented in a way that supports teachers and learners?
- How has the increased accessibility of generative AI influenced HE and FE providers and students?
- What are the cyber security risks within the school estate? What is best practice for cyber security in schools and how can we scale this across the school estate?
- How do AI and other digital technologies support existing ways of working in schools and colleges? What are the main opportunities for the future?
- How could technology and data be better utilised to identify, classify and monitor biodiversity alongside transport infrastructure? What can asset managers in the transport sector learn from other sectors in this area.
- In security applications, how can we rely on AI to show us all the possible threats (not seeing what we are not shown)?
- What training needs to be delivered to interact and challenge meaningfully AI algorithms? How can we prevent skills deterioration?
- How can new technologies and approaches be applied to enhance the cyber security of transport systems, including points of interconnection, autonomous transport, and commercial space flight? How does increased cyber-reliance in transport systems reduce our resilience to or increase the impact of an attack or major catastrophe?
- How can new approaches and technologies be applied to deter, detect, and disrupt the misuse of drones?
- How can new approaches and technologies be applied to enhance the detection of threat materials and items that could harm transport systems?
- How can innovations in data science, data analytics, sensor technology (including innovative deployment) be used and integrated with wider security systems to enhance security in transport systems?
- How can emerging technologies be deployed in a safe and secure way to enhance the protective security and resilience of transport systems?
- How can quantum based cyber security systems protect the transport sector beyond that of current classical cyber security?
- What are the human-machine interface (HMI) requirements for AI applications such as machine vision? How can we limit overreliance?
- How can new technologies, digitalisation and data analytics be utilised to improve transport networks, user experience and create more effective and cost-efficient transport systems?
- How can we improve the provision of information; set standards; and use new technologies to improve aviation safety and security?
- What is the best way to maintain and develop the software suite that supports the development of business cases, such as Transport Users Benefit Appraisal (TUBA) and Wider Impacts in Transport Appraisal (WITA)? What is the best avenue to communicate the Department’s methodologies to stakeholders?
- How can maritime information (including navigation) be digitalised to allow machine reading alongside human inter-operability, is different information required by autonomous systems?
- How should autonomous aviation systems communicate with ground control and each other?
- How can quantum processing benefit analytical approaches to modelling and simulation of transport data?
- How will new and emerging technology assist in the operation, maintenance, and renewal of the Strategic Road Network?
- What is the role of remote operation (assistance, decision making & control)? What are the skills and requirements for such operation for autonomous systems?
- Can we have AI learn “on the job” safely? For example, in machine vision applications.
- How can we use digital twins to increase resilience, responsiveness, and integration of our network (cross modally)?
- How can advances in communication technologies be used to inform our understanding of trade in digital services?
- Which technologies are most likely to disrupt the pattern of global trade and investment in the coming decades and what impact will they have on productivity growth?
- How can data flows be rapidly improved, promoting data sharing across research, government and industry to allow secure collaboration?
- In response to a trade shock, what innovative approaches to support data collection, dissemination and application can be taken, without burdening businesses and frontline staff?
- How can artificial intelligence, machine learning, simulation, agent based modelling and other leading data science techniques contribute to better understanding of trade and investment patterns?
- What modern provisions most effectively address emerging technologies, emerging data flows and digital trade?
- What long-term trade opportunities and risks may arise from changes in the use of technology and ways of working resulting from COVID-19?/
- How can we monitor emissions arising as a result of digital consumption?
- What is the best way to secure the inclusion and accessibility of radio on smart devices? What is the current value exchange between smart device platforms and UK radio stations, and how is this likely to change in the future? What are the audience demographics for old digital (DAB) radios vs new DAB+ devices.
- To what extent do audiences who watch linear TV engage with digital technologies such as on demand players, broadband at home, and smartphones?
- What has been effective in supporting businesses to adopt digital technologies? What difference have these made to productivity?
- What are the characteristics of those who watch linear TV but engage very little with digital technologies? Why is their engagement low? What are the barriers and enablers for adopting non-linear TV?
- What methods for data fusion and linkage across datasets best retain the anonymity of identifiers?
- What datasets, like street works data, could be used to verify open market review (OMR) plans of suppliers?
- What resources are required to ensure the safe and efficient handling of data in education settings?
- Changing world: How have evolutions in our statistical system (such as the greater focus on administrative sources for statistics) influenced how statistics are produced, used, and valued? How may advances in wider society (such as the increasing sophistication of large language models) influence how statistics are produced, used, and valued?
- What is the expected growth of the UK's maritime autonomy and remote operations sector and what impact will this technical change have on the workforce?
- What interventions have been effective in AHT sectors for narrowing the digital skills gap in their workforce and for improving digital infrastructure?
- How do we account for AI-first assumptions/errors (that humans would not make)?
- How is digital culture affecting how people interact with both physical and digital forms of culture? Are they substitutes or complements e.g. can digital engagement increase physical engagement? What does this mean for future policy interventions and business models?
- What are functional and operations performance and training requirements for remote-control/operation centre/station - with a focus on Human Element?
- How is digital culture affecting how people define culture?
- To what extent has the COVID-19 pandemic and transition to more online/hybrid events changed the domestic/international digital footprint of AHT organisations based within the UK?
- How can new approaches and technologies be applied to perform targeted screening of groups of people?
- What requirements should apply to navigation bridge sensors and controls for use in MASS, in particular human and machine interfaces, update rates, and data representation?
- What impacts are smart speakers and broader connected devices having on radio listening and on radio providers? What are the opportunities for voice activation usage on smart speakers?
- What are the possible technical solutions to link AHT-related datasets together, particularly given the lack of Uniform Resource Names (URN) across datasets holding AHT data?