Digital technologies have a transformative impact in the economy and wider society. New innovations in Information Communication Technology (ICT) such as the next generation '5G' internet, automation and robotics, and big data and Artificial Intelligence (AI) have the potential to make a profound societal impact and the pace of development is staggering. The same technologies can though have a negative impact on society, including significantly increasing the carbon emissions related to ICT and thus creating damaging impacts on our environment. Managing this duality between ICT's benefits and risks must be at the heart of future ICT design and innovation - ensuring ICT can continue to bring value to our society and the economy, while keeping ICT innovations from exceeding planetary boundaries. However, there is currently scarce consideration of systemic impacts within ICT innovation, and design processes today lack the information and tools required to embed environmental sustainability into ICT. This project, PARIS-DE, will ensure that the carbon emissions associated with the ICT sector are aligned with the Paris agreement: limiting temperature increases to 1.5 degrees Celsius. To do this, the PARIS-DE project will develop a digital sustainability framework that systemically considers ICT's impacts and ensures Paris-compliant design through two key concepts: i) an evidence base around carbon emissions in the digital economy, and ii) a responsible innovation approach that targets environmental sustainability, yet maintains key aspects of ICT design that enable societal thriving. Using a range of disciplinary perspectives including computer science, human-centred design, philosophy and ethics and environmental economics, PARIS-DE will develop digital tools that support ICT development within planetary boundaries, and will create, demonstrate and evaluate the digital sustainability framework through three case studies: 1) big data and AI, 2) autonomous systems, and 3) video streaming. These case studies, taken as representative of the digital economy, will allow for an evaluation of different underlying technologies that threaten rising emissions. The case studies will also involve working closely with key stakeholders in ICT innovation (e.g. designers and developers in the ICT sector), ensuring the framework is comprehensive and effective. PARIS-DE will ultimately allow the ICT sector to innovate technology more sustainably and in-line with climate change mitigation targets.

Digital technologies, devices and data are now woven into the fabric of contemporary societies. To describe this, we can say that we live in a 'sociodigital' world. This has become especially visible during the COVID-19 pandemic, during which we have seen rapid shifts to online education, healthcare and work, the extension of algorithmic decision making by government (e.g. A' Level results), and changes to shopping habits that may transform the high street for ever. Social Science provides excellent resources for understanding the changes that have taken place to date. The question remains: what will our sociodigital futures look like? What kinds of futures are in the making? Who or what is shaping possible futures and what will this mean for currently widening social and economic inequalities and for the climate change crisis? These are challenging questions. We know, from the past, that we cannot make deterministic assumptions about new technologies or predict sociodigital futures with any certainty. However, this does not mean that we should abandon attention to the future. To the contrary, the stakes have never been higher. With a global recession looming, widening socio-economic inequalities and an underlying climate crisis, it is essential that we establish a new approach, one that will create actionable knowledge for reflexive, inclusive and sustainable sociodigital futures. The ESRC Centre for Sociodigital Futures begins from the premise that while the future is unknowable, how the future is enacted in the present - discursively, materially and by whom - matters enormously. This shifts the focus of attention towards the social relations of future making in the present: what claims are made about sociodigital futures, how do these drive investments, policies and expectations? What futures do these open up, and close down? And which of these start to shape 'actual futures', through the changing practices of communities, businesses, policy makers and others? Answering these questions presents an ambitious agenda, and a unique proposition for UK and international Social Science. To address this agenda we will deliver a distinctive programme of high impact empirical research and capacity building, by drawing together four distinct forms of expertise: (i) expertise in specific domains of everyday life - caring, consuming, learning, moving and organizing; (ii) expertise in the theories, methodologies and practices of future making; (iii) technical expertise in Artificial Intelligence, Virtual/Alternative Realities, Robotics and High Performance Networks; and (iv) co-production expertise to drive participatory, inclusive and sustainable future-making. The Centre has been designed and will be implemented with strategic partners well-placed to deliver on the creation of inclusive and sustainable sociodigital futures. Our partners have a significant influence on the environment (UK Department for Farming, Environment and Rural Affairs), digital service delivery (British Telecom -serving 170 countries), security (the National Cybersecurity Centre), community (Locality - 1300 members support 307,000+ people/week), education and culture (the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization - supporting peace through international cooperation, and leaders of the UN Foresight Network). Working with these partners, we will build the capacity to engage with sociodigital futures-in-the-making, to anticipate possible risks and opportunities, and tip the balance towards more positive futures.