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This event was the third of the `Failed it to Nailed it’ online data seminar series. The event was hosted online through a zoom conference. The event ran for approximately 3 hours in an afternoon session. There were three talks given on the topics of different aspects of responsible data management including the ethical dimensions of research data management and different types of legislation with respect to personal and non personal data. The talks were followed by an interactive breakout discussion on the moral and ethical discussions surrounding different aspects of the data lifecycle. The discussions were facilitated by using a set of Moral IT cards developed by researchers at the University of Nottingham. Dr Samantha Kanza and Dr Nicola Knight produced a full report on this event summarising both the talks and the breakout sessions which can be found here: https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/447534/. Below are the three videos of the talks with speaker biographies, followed by details of the breakout session.

Ethical data management – balancing individual privacy and public benefit – (Zosia Beckles – University of Bristol)

Zosia Beckles is an experienced information professional with a background in health informatics and research data management in the higher education and research sectors. She currently works with Library Research Support at the University of Bristol, providing training and support to academics in research metrics/bibliometrics and sensitive research data management, including the development of a new dataset disclosure risk assessment service to enable safe publication of sensitive data.

Data legislation, personal and non-personal data, ethical issues and protecting your IP rights – (Michele Voznick – Pinsent Masons LLP)

Michele specialises in privacy, data protection and information law. Her previous work with regulators in the UK and Europe means she brings a unique depth of knowledge and understanding to advising clients on the interpretation and application of this complex area of law. As a UK national expert, she was seconded from the Information Commissioner’s Office to the European Commission to work on the GDPR, e-privacy reform and the Digital Single Market. Michele has extensive experience of advising national and multi-national corporations on compliance and data use beyond compliance to optimise their data strategies. She is in strong demand as a speaker, writer and trainer on all aspects of data protection, privacy, Freedom of Information and Environmental Information. 

Practical Ethics for Data Science and Algorithm Design – (Tessa Darbyshire – Cell Press Patterns)

Tessa has a philosophy background, and her academic work, within a global group, focuses on the computer/human interface, particularly in relation to explainability, interpretability, and trust. She has expertise across the fields of technical validity, privacy legislation, and ethical practice, particularly in relation to the human impact of data. She is particularly fond of papers with an arboreal bent, as reading them goes some of the way to make up for living in the Big Smoke.

Interactive Activity (Peter Craigon – University of Nottingham: Moral IT cards & Ethics)

Peter Craigon is a Research Fellow in Ethics, Legislation and Engagement in Food and Agricultural Innovation within the Future Food Beacon of Excellence at the University of Nottingham. He is working with Professor Kate Millar and Professor Richard Hyde on developing tools to encourage ethical engagement and regulatory responsiveness for researchers working in food and agricultural innovation and beyond. He previously worked at the Horizon Digital Economy Research Institute at the University of Nottingham developing a tool to enable ethical design of IT based technologies and also at the University of Nottingham School of Veterinary Medicine and Science researching dog behaviour. Alongside this he completed a multidisciplinary PhD at the Horizon Centre for Doctoral Training also at the University of Nottingham exploring how social maps create knowledge about place.

The Moral-IT cards, developed by Dr Lachlan Urquhart (now at Edinburgh) and Dr Peter Craigon, at the Horizon Digital Economy Research Institute at the University of Nottingham[1], are used as a tool to prompt reflection on the legal, ethical, technical and social implications of new information technologies. In this interactive session we used the Moral-IT cards to prompt discussion and thought on the ethical implications that a user’s research can have, and how they can consider these angles in their experiment and research design. The session was introduced by Dr Peter Craigon from the University of Nottingham and the discussion groups were by members of our organising team. The Moral-IT cards are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License and more information can be found on this website: https://lachlansresearch.com/the-moral-it-legal-it-decks/