Digital Worlds

This theme explores how digital technologies, from sensor networks through to digital twins, are transforming both real and virtual worlds, as well as the lives of those who inhabit them. For example, the rapid increase in large and complex data sets from diverse sources—such as environmental monitoring, remote sensing, transport, social media, and citizen science contributions—combined with advancements in methodologies and computational techniques, offers an extraordinary opportunity to deepen our understanding of the impacts of environmental change and to develop innovative solutions to environmentally related challenges. In parallel, companies are integrating digital twins into their operations to optimise management of systems that impact on the services and resources we interact with.

As technology becomes more integrated into everyday life, it shifts from being a mere tool to becoming a collaborator in decision-making. Importantly, with the increasing sophistication the digital landscape, it is crucial that the technologies we design are grounded in human understanding, ethics and the science that underpins the world in which we live.

'The theme's job is to join that work up, identify what's coming next, and turn the sum of those parts into research, partnerships and opportunities that no single group would create alone. We do this through two complementary groups and a growing programme of activity for the wider community.

Looking outward: the Horizon Scanning Group

Our Horizon Scanning Group meets quarterly to look further ahead than day-to-day research allows. Drawing on members from across the University, it scans systematically across industry, policy, international developments, academia, society, funding and risk. Part of each meeting is spent deliberately inhabiting futures that don't yet exist: imagining 2040, or removing a technology we take for granted and working backwards. The group's insights become briefings for University and the "Signatures of Emerging Digital Worlds" section of our newsletter, open for anyone to read.

Looking inward: the Steering Group

Where the Horizon Scanning Group looks out, the Steering Group looks across the University itself. Its role is to connect and uplift what's already happening. The two groups deliberately cross-pollinate: outward sight informs inward action, and what the University is doing shapes where we look next.

For the community

Around the groups sits an open programme for anyone whose work touches digital and virtual worlds. Bytes & Brews, our bimonthly newsletter, turns the groups' conversations into readable narratives, researcher spotlights and curated funding calls. Community members can propose topics (and pitch them in person) to the Horizon Scanning Group, feature in our Researcher Spotlight, and join the events we're building with the community's input.

Get involved: the easiest way in is to join the mailing list / reply to the newsletter — or simply get in touch. If your work touches real or virtual worlds, there's a place for it here.' 

 

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