This proposal addresses the Digital Economy and Financial Services research challenge by improving Small and Medium Enterprises' (SMEs) access to credit. The issue is that information in and around credit decision-making is generally limited to company and individual track record. It ignores the position and importance of a company in its business ecosystem. Credit lending decisions by finance providers therefore have unseen network effects and limit growth in unseen ways. To address this issue, SCRIBE uses emerging semantic technologies to provide disruptive innovation in the form of more accurate real-time credit risk assessment based on a dynamic understanding of the position and value of a company in relation to its business ecosystem (or network). The scientific contributions of SCRIBE are twofold. First, the project fuses the state-of-the-art in (social) network analytics and credit assessment techniques to develop its ecosystem-based understanding (and associated marketing opportunities). Second, as technical foundation, the project develops a state-of-the-art method to 'harmonise' the different conceptual models that underlie data drawn from multiple sources, preserving contextual richness in so doing. Contextual preservation is important not only for network-based decision-making, but also for audit and the legal issues considered by the project since it is relatively well-acknowledged that conventional data modelling implicitly abstracts away important aspects of context. The scientific contributions are developed and exploited via a collaborative partnership that combines understanding of credit risk and assessment at both the transaction-level (via open online accounting data and via collaboration with Lloyds) and firmographic-level (via collaboration with Creditsafe). Addressing the NEMODE ethos, the project maintains a focus on impact via the development of novel information products and applications (via collaboration with Level Business).

This proposal addresses the Digital Economy and Financial Services research challenge by improving Small and Medium Enterprises' (SMEs) access to credit. The issue is that information in and around credit decision-making is generally limited to company and individual track record. It ignores the position and importance of a company in its business ecosystem. Credit lending decisions by finance providers therefore have unseen network effects and limit growth in unseen ways. To address this issue, SCRIBE uses emerging semantic technologies to provide disruptive innovation in the form of more accurate real-time credit risk assessment based on a dynamic understanding of the position and value of a company in relation to its business ecosystem (or network). The scientific contributions of SCRIBE are twofold. First, the project fuses the state-of-the-art in (social) network analytics and credit assessment techniques to develop its ecosystem-based understanding (and associated marketing opportunities). Second, as technical foundation, the project develops a state-of-the-art method to 'harmonise' the different conceptual models that underlie data drawn from multiple sources, preserving contextual richness in so doing. Contextual preservation is important not only for network-based decision-making, but also for audit and the legal issues considered by the project since it is relatively well-acknowledged that conventional data modelling implicitly abstracts away important aspects of context. The scientific contributions are developed and exploited via a collaborative partnership that combines understanding of credit risk and assessment at both the transaction-level (via open online accounting data and via collaboration with Lloyds) and firmographic-level (via collaboration with Creditsafe). Addressing the NEMODE ethos, the project maintains a focus on impact via the development of novel information products and applications (via collaboration with Level Business).

Older adults have long been lesser beneficiaries of the digital economy, with many unable or choosing not to adopt digital technologies which do not speak to their particular needs and wants. With COVID-19 spurring societal digitalisation at an unprecedented pace, digitally disadvantaged older adults have been locked out of essential and life-saving services, while others have been made to take up technologies they may be deeply uncomfortable using. As we reimagine society to deal with an ongoing pandemic reality, it is essential that older adults are neither left behind nor forced to make major concessions in their way of life. It is not enough, therefore, to simply improve access to digital technologies. An equitable digital society requires that older adults are welcomed into a digital economy that treats them as first order stakeholders. This project fills this critical need to create a digital society that delivers equal to benefits older adults by: 1) Analysing data on older adults that has been collected over the last 20 years to understand various interrelated and multiplicative factors in older adults' exclusion from the digital economy; 2) Conducting interviews and focus groups with older adults to explore how this period of rapid digitalisation has altered older adults' relationship with digital technologies, focusing on four key areas undergoing important change as a result of the pandemic: Health, Communication, Place, Finance; 3) Co-designing new technology prototypes with older adults to establish a radical new practice which enables older adults to meaningfully participate in creating an equitable digital society; and 4) Creating lasting resources to instill best practice for a digital economy that is inclusive of the full diversity of older adults.

We are living in an era of Big data with the rapid technological developments in information technologies and communications providing an unprecedented amount of data and new forms of data. Big data is now an integral part of our daily lives and are routinely produced by local government and business. In these settings, data production is just a by-product of the activities local government or business are involved in: most often, this information is collected for a specific purpose but very little use is made of these data-sets beyond the original purpose they were designed for. The challenge is how we can make better use of these types of information to improve our quality of life and foster economic growth. If combined together, these datasets can provide valuable information and insights into how businesses and local authorities work, the ways in which improvements to services can be made or businesses become more successful and efficient in their operation. Big data can provide local authorities and businesses additional information which can help them to design better policies and improve their business operations. To date, very little data of this type has been available for social scientific research in a systematic way. The aim of the new Smart Data Analytics (SDA) for Business and Local Government research centre is to utilise this explosion of information for social scientific research to answer questions that affect all our lives. For example, in an era of austerity and belt-tightening for local authorities, how can they make best use of limited resources to deliver the highest quality service to residents including across health and social care provision, education, crime reduction, housing and transport? By using data sources collected by local authorities for their administrative purposes we can start to unravel some of these questions and make relevant and timely policy recommendations. We have partnered with three local councils in Kent, Essex and Norfolk who are keen to work with academic researchers to learn from the information they hold to improve their service delivery but at present do not fully utilise. We have also partnered with businesses who wish to understand how we can foster and support economic growth, particularly for small and medium enterprises and start-ups. What are the barriers these businesses face and how can Big data help us understand the best means of overcoming these? The SDA will establish a secure data facility at the University of Essex where Big data from a variety of sources are stored and matched so to produce new information which can be useful to both local authorities and businesses. At the same time, the facility will give researchers, local authorities and businesses a point of access to Big data and expertise and support in using those data. There are clearly many issues of data privacy and confidentiality to be considered and the Centre will develop safe methods of handling, anonymising and linking data to ensure the confidentiality of businesses and individuals is maintained and respected. The Centre will also carry out research into how Big data can best be analysed as some of the methods used for more standard forms of data such as social surveys may not apply. We have an innovative substantive research programme articulated in a set of research streams designed to focus on key policy issues: (i) Methodological advances in Big Data analysis; (ii) Local economic growth, (iii) Support for vulnerable people; and (iv) the Green Infrastructure. The Centre will also provide training and support to new researchers, businesses and local authorities and engage actively with both businesses and local authorities through tailored knowledge exchange activities which will draw on the expertise built in the Centre. The new Centre promises to be an exciting development that will not only advance knowledge but have a positive impact on our quality of life.

AP4L is a 3-year program of interdisciplinary research, centring on the online privacy & vulnerability challenges that people face when going through major life transitions. Our central goal is to develop privacy-by-design technologies to protect & empower people during these transitions. Our work is driven by a narrative that will be familiar to most people. Life often "just happens", leading people to overlook their core privacy and online safety needs. For instance, somebody undergoing cancer treatment may be less likely to finesse their privacy setting on social media when discussing the topic. Similarly, an individual undergoing gender transition may be unaware of how their online activities in the past may shape the treatment into the future. This project will build the scientific and theoretical foundations to explore these challenges, as well as design and evaluate three core innovations that will address the identified challenges. AP4L will introduce a step-change, making online safety and privacy as painless and seamless as possible during life transitions To ensure a breadth of understanding, we will apply these concepts to four very different transitions through a series of carefully designed co-creation activities, devised as part of a stakeholder workshop held in Oct'21. These are relationship breakdowns; LBGT+ transitions or transitioning gender; entering/ leaving employment in the Armed Forces; and developing a serious illness or becoming terminally ill. Such transitions can significantly change privacy considerations in unanticipated or counter-intuitive ways. For example, previously enabled location-sharing with a partner may lead to stalking after a breakup; 'coming out' may need careful management across diverse audiences (e.g - friends, grandparents) on social media. We will study these transitions, following a creative security approach, bringing together interdisciplinary expertise in Computer Science, Law, Business, Psychology and Criminology. We will systematise this knowledge, and develop fundamental models of the nature of transitions and their interplay with online lives. These models will inform the development of a suite of technologies and solutions that will help people navigate significant life transitions through adaptive, personalised privacy-enhanced interventions that meet the needs of each individual and bolster their resilience, autonomy, competence and connection. The suite will comprise: (1) "Risk Playgrounds", which will build resilience by helping users to explore potentially risky interactions of life transitions with privacy settings across their digital footprint in safe ways (2) "Transition Guardians", which will provide real-time protection for users during life transitions. (3) "Security Bubbles", which will promote connection by bringing people together who can help each other (or who need to work together) during one person's life transition, whilst providing additional guarantees to safeguard everyone involved. In achieving this vision, and as evidenced by £686K of in-kind contributions, we will work with 26 core partners spanning legal enforcement agencies (e.g., Surrey Police), tech companies (e.g., Facebook, IBM), support networks (e.g., LGBT Foundation, Revenge Porn Helpline) and associated organisations (e.g., Ofcom, Mastercard, BBC). Impact will be delivered through various activities including a specially commissioned BBC series on online life transitions to share knowledge with the public; use of the outputs of our projects by companies & social platforms (e.g., by incorporating into their products, & by designing their products to take into consideration the findings of our project) & targeted workshops to enable knowledge exchange with partners & stakeholders.