Our 2-year interdisciplinary project will investigate how the lack of repairability in the consumer Internet of Things (IoT) will adversely impact equity, inclusion, and sustainability in the digital economy. IoT products are becoming the default, with wireless connectivity and automation bundled into mundane household items like TVs, energy meters, toys and phones. Whilst the IoT can still be a consumer choice now, its growth means citizens may see it imposed on them in the future. We use theory and methodologies from Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Design and Law to anticipate the future impacts of a digital divide caused by redundant IoT devices, particularly for lower income households. We will envision how to build more equitable IoT devices and avoid future inequalities posed by the poor long-term cybersecurity, exploitative uses of data and lacking environmental sustainability that define the current IoT. Some citizens can afford to replace broken devices but others cannot and require support to repair them or face the impacts. We will examine how equality issues from IoT arise across society, generations and geographies. We will then investigate how to create more repairable devices that respect citizens legal rights, provide long-term cybersecurity, minimise eWaste, and are supported by local community repairability networks. To do this, we have a research programme driven by stakeholder engagement and co-creation with citizens and project partners, namely: - Local community repair and maker space, The Making Rooms Blackburn - Consumer rights and advocacy group, Which? - Public broadcaster and new media experience developers, BBC Research & Development - IoT cybersecurity firm, NCC Group - Climate futures focused artist, Rachel Jacobs/Active Ingredient, - Social inclusion and digital skills body, the Department of Employment and Social Development in the Canadian Government. Our 4 integrated work packages (WPs) are underpinned by technical prototype development; qualitative evaluation and participatory research activities; public engagement; and policy driven activities to foster change in the sector to address current IoT led inequalities. Key focal points of the WPs include: examining legal and ethical challenges for equality posed by current IoT; creating and running an IoT Repair Shop installation in Blackburn with citizens and local repair networks; designing prototypes and user experiences that demonstrate how to build in repairability to address inequalities posed by current IoT; and developing an 'Equal-IoT' toolkit that will practically support development of more equitable futures when living with IoT. The toolkit is a novel contribution that includes design recommendations and action plans for manufacturers to change current practices; policy guidelines and briefings to shape government activities; digital skills guidelines for enabling repairability in the community; development of an IoT repair shop blueprint model to roll out to other parts of the UK; touring the Repair Shop as a public engagement activity with citizens; developing a manifesto for citizens and repairers to showcase their rights and champion change in IoT development.

Today we use many objects not normally associated with computers or the internet. These include gas meters and lights in our homes, healthcare devices, water distribution systems and cars. Increasingly, such objects are digitally connected and some are transitioning from cellular network connections (M2M) to using the internet: e.g. smart meters and cars - ultimately self-driving cars may revolutionise transport. This trend is driven by numerous forces. The connection of objects and use of their data can cut costs (e.g. allowing remote control of processes) creates new business opportunities (e.g. tailored consumer offerings), and can lead to new services (e.g. keeping older people safe in their homes). This vision of interconnected physical objects is commonly referred to as the Internet of Things. The examples above not only illustrate the vast potential of such technology for economic and societal benefit, they also hint that such a vision comes with serious challenges and threats. For example, information from a smart meter can be used to infer when people are at home, and an autonomous car must make quick decisions of moral dimensions when faced with a child running across on a busy road. This means the Internet of Things needs to evolve in a trustworthy manner that individuals can understand and be comfortable with. It also suggests that the Internet of Things needs to be resilient against active attacks from organised crime, terror organisations or state-sponsored aggressors. Therefore, this project creates a Hub for research, development, and translation for the Internet of Things, focussing on privacy, ethics, trust, reliability, acceptability, and security/safety: PETRAS, (also suggesting rock-solid foundations) for the Internet of Things. The Hub will be designed and run as a 'social and technological platform'. It will bring together UK academic institutions that are recognised international research leaders in this area, with users and partners from various industrial sectors, government agencies, and NGOs such as charities, to get a thorough understanding of these issues in terms of the potentially conflicting interests of private individuals, companies, and political institutions; and to become a world-leading centre for research, development, and innovation in this problem space. Central to the Hub approach is the flexibility during the research programme to create projects that explore issues through impactful co-design with technical and social science experts and stakeholders, and to engage more widely with centres of excellence in the UK and overseas. Research themes will cut across all projects: Privacy and Trust; Safety and Security; Adoption and Acceptability; Standards, Governance, and Policy; and Harnessing Economic Value. Properly understanding the interaction of these themes is vital, and a great social, moral, and economic responsibility of the Hub in influencing tomorrow's Internet of Things. For example, a secure system that does not adequately respect privacy, or where there is the mere hint of such inadequacy, is unlikely to prove acceptable. Demonstrators, like wearable sensors in health care, will be used to explore and evaluate these research themes and their tension. New solutions are expected to come out of the majority of projects and demonstrators, many solutions will be generalisable to problems in other sectors, and all projects will produce valuable insights. A robust governance and management structure will ensure good management of the research portfolio, excellent user engagement and focussed coordination of impact from deliverables. The Hub will further draw on the expertise, networks, and on-going projects of its members to create a cross-disciplinary language for sharing problems and solutions across research domains, industrial sectors, and government departments. This common language will enhance the outreach, development, and training activities of the Hub.

major transformation of the food system is required, which is focused on the production and consumption of healthy and sustainable food. Change will need to be facilitated through a number of means, both direct and indirect. The Sus-Health project will establish and demonstrate a blueprint of a system that incentivises both directly and indirectly the consumption of sustainable and healthy food. The project will demonstrate to stakeholders how the use of a codesigned, combined measure of environmental impact and nutritive value (the Sus-Health Index) of foods, meals and ingredients can be used to influence the future direction of our food system and the stakeholders within it. Sus-Health will co-create a systemic strategy and innovative solution for influencing food choices and consumption, so that they better align with planetary boundaries and nutritional guidelines. The resulting consumer preferences (obtained through living lab experiments and through simulation) will feed back down the entire food chain driving the processes and raw materials used, towards more sustainable and health-inducing foods and diets. Comprising two academic partners and a range of stakeholder involvement Sus-Health will demonstrate a range of stakeholder focused communication vehicles, in a range of interventions in Northern Ireland followed by upscaling activities in the rest of the UK. The consortium comprises a mix of academic, and food industry partners with expertise in consumer behaviour, sustainability, nutrition, agri-economics, software design, agriculture, food service, and food systems. Key outputs of the project will be: - The develpment, validation and demonstration of the use and applicability of a combined measure for assessing sustainability and nutritive value in real settings (restaurants, fast food outlets, canteens and related supply chains) - A range of communication tools and approaches aimed at influencing change in consumer food choices - Interventions focused on food affordability including economic assessments of direct policy interventions that would make healthy sustainable food more affordable. - Stakeholder guidelines for using the Sus-Health index and related communication tools together with extensive stakeholder focused communication and dissemination activities