Research

Find out more about our interdisciplinary research on the digital good from the Digital Good Research Fund, our management team, associate researchers, postdoctoral researchers, PhD students, and our interns and fellows. These projects will all feed into the Digital Good Index, a set of tools to evaluate whether digital technologies have good societal outcomes.

Year

Research internships

We are building a research community focused on what a good digital society should look like and how we get there. As part of this, we seek to build up the skills of a diverse range of early career researchers who will go on to comprise the next generation of digital society researchers.

Our research internships scheme provided PhD students with a funded opportunity to experience working with interdisciplinary teams in various sectors and industries.

2024 interns:

Host: Government Open Innovation Team

Intern: Vanessa Cumper, PhD student, University of Surrey

Conducting evidence reviews, interviews and workshops with a view to supporting local authorities to deliver better value for Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) provision as well as researching the potential impacts of demographic trends on public services.

Host: BBC R&D

Intern: Lauren Martin, PhD student, University of Sheffield

A rapid review into the various challenges and opportunities for the host in using emerging technologies to support civic and political engagement.

Host: Zinc VC (Venture – Our Time HQ)

Intern: Rebecca Ruddock, PhD student, University of Sheffield

Supporting a tech start up with various research activities i.e. literature reviews, pilot studies and data analysis in addition to other activities i.e. workshop planning and grant application support.

Host: BBC R&D

Intern: Niamh Cashell, PhD student, University of Manchester

Empirical research into the use of AI generative images in the run up to the 2024 election.

Host: BBC R&D

Intern: Lily Rodel, PhD student, University of Oxford

A short-term qualitative study on the relationship between meaningful work and the internal use of the Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) productivity tool Microsoft Copilot at the host organisation.

Host: BBC R&D

Intern: Johnny Swierczynski, PhD student, University of Bath

A rapid literature review and workshops exploring the question ‘What would happen if we evaluated AI in journalism against societal benefits as well as efficiency gains, risk mitigation and engagement metrics?’ on behalf of the host.

Host: Zinc VC (Venture – Unravel)

Intern: Hannah Westwood, PhD student, University of Coventry

Supporting a women’s health tech start up with workshops, product design and grant applications.

2025 interns:

Host: Stripe Partners

Intern: Fabiana Anselmo, University of Nottingham

Empowering young girls in the UK and Brazil to engage confidently with AI, to produce actionable recommendations that inform educational tools for digital wellbeing, literacy and critical thinking.

Host: Unravel Health (Zinc)

Intern: Passara Chanchotisatien, Edinburgh University

Analysing hormone-monitoring data from a large-scale pilot study to generate clinically relevant insights for women’s health research and management.

Host: BBC R&D

Intern: Stephen Crone, University of Liverpool

Creating a practical toolkit for Public Service Media to understand and measure digital exclusion, using the Minimum Digital Living Standard (MDLS) as a foundation.

Host: BBC R&D

Intern: Charlotte Curle, Lancaster University

Exploring the impact that the Online Safety Act (2023) has on public service media’s role in fostering civic engagement, providing an equity-focused social science lens on new initiatives.

Host: South Yorkshire Digital Health Hub

Intern: Chloe Curtis, University of Oxford

Helping to develop a digital data collection tool for capturing self-reported effects from using hormonal contraceptives, with a focus on underserved and underrepresented populations..

Host: Victoria and Albert Museum

Intern: Patrícia Falcão, Goldsmiths

Investigating the environmental and technological sustainability of digital acquisition and preservation workflows, creating actionable recommendations for the sector.

Host: GFSC.studio / GFSC.community

Intern: Blue Maignien, University of Sheffield

Raising awareness of the Community Technology Partnership (CTP) approach to commissioning technology through the production of guidelines for community groups and social care commissioners.

Host: Arebyte

Intern: James O’Sullivan, University of Bristol

Helping improve visitor surveying by developing a novel, engaging data processing system, including a peripheral data collection prototype and visualisation toolkit for stakeholder engagement.

Host: Eye2Gene Ltd.

Intern: Eva Price, University College London

Advancing AI diagnostic tools for inherited retinal diseases, contributing to frameworks such as pre-determined change control plans for model robustness and reliability, across diverse patient populations and clinical environments.

Host: Cambridge Medixine (Zinc)

Intern: Kavi Shah, University of Cambridge

Evaluating and applying AI tools to improve self-amplifying RNA therapeutic platforms for mucopolysaccharidosis (MPS), assessing ethical, social, and regulatory factors to ensure responsible and equitable development.

Host: BBC R&D

Intern: Amna Smith, University of Southampton

Addressing invisible digital inclusion barriers for marginalised young people, particularly refugees learning digital skills, including the creation of a practical guide for education practitioners.

Host: BBC R&D

Intern: Ka Wing So, University of Glasgow

Developing an evaluation framework to measure how AI contributes to equity, representation, and civic engagement in public service journalism.

Host: Ada Lovelace Institute

Intern: Kin>%, Newcastle University

Developing community-based arts practice within a research programme, focusing on AI literacy, place, and redress in the North East.

Blueprints for a good digital society

The aim of the Digital Good Network is to advance understanding of what a good digital society looks like and how we get there.

For the fourth and final round of the Digital Good Research Fund, researchers will produce a ‘blueprint’ and a briefing document about what a particular aspect of social life or societal institution looks like in a good digital society, and how we achieve it.

From this call, we funded 15 projects, each looking at a different aspect of social life or societal institution.

Blueprint for…

Digital governance for urban administrations in the Global South in a good digital society

Fenna Imara Hoefsloot, University College London
Ayona Datta, University College London

Digital death in a good digital society

Eva Nieto McAvoy, King’s College London

Children’s critical engagement with technology in a good digital society: the case for hybrid arts education in formal schooling

Dylan Yamada-Rice, Falmouth University
John Potter, University College London

Environmentally sustainable use of generative AI in schools in a good digital society

Miles Berry, University of Roehampton
Arif Mahmud, University of Roehampton

Digital spaces to support survivors of human trafficking in a good digital society

Sohail Jannesari, King’s College London
Sharli Paphitis, King’s College London

Rest, calm and downtime in a good digital society

Tina Kendall, Anglia Ruskin University

Connected families in a good digital society

Murray Goulden, University of Nottingham
Jenny van Hooff, Manchester Metropolitan University

Digital platforms designed with and for autistic people in a good digital society

Nelya Koteyko, Queen Mary, University of London
Belén Barros Pena, City St George’s, University of London

A good city AI ecosystem: the case of Manchester

Richard Whittle, Salford University
Sherelle Fairweather, Manchester City Council
James Ransom, freelance

Inclusive and safe virtual reality in a good digital society

Oliver Merry, Sheffield Hallam University
Kate Whitfield, Sheffield Hallam University

Digital tools to support food sharing in a good digital society: the case of community-based initiatives for migrants/refugees

Sara Marino, London College of Communication, University of the Arts

Digital infrastructures of cooperative care: adult domiciliary social care in a good digital society

Genevieve Shanahan, Cardiff University
Maria Daskalaki, Oxford Brookes University
Emma Back, Equal Care Co-op
Maimoona Waseem, Nottingham Trent University

Digital-first museums and community-hosted heritage initiatives in a good digital society

Daniel McNeil, University of Birmingham
Chamion Caballero, The Mixed Museum
Dhiraj Murthy, University of Texas at Austin
Kennya Souza, University of Birmingham

Just and ethical film-making with/without Gen-AI in a good digital society

Sylvia Hayes, University of Exeter
Emilie Vrain, University of Oxford

Anti-ableist data and algorithmic systems in a good digital society

Denis Newman-Griffis, University of Sheffield
Bonnielin Swenor, Johns Hopkins University
Lauren Scattergood, University of Sheffield

Digital Good Index

The Digital Good Index is a set of tools to evaluate whether digital technologies have good societal outcomes. It builds on digital society research from the Digital Good Network and beyond.

Read the latest about our work on the Digital Good Index.

Measures of the digital good

The Digital Good Index is based on ten values underpinning a good digital society, which we propose are measures of the digital good:

Involving stakeholders, especially those who are minoritised or disadvantaged, listen to their views (in all stages – evaluation, design, development, deployment)
Using participatory, co-design methods (in all stages – evaluation, design, development, deployment)
Taking action towards equality
Taking action towards collective wellbeing
Taking action towards minimising environmental impacts
Ethical data practices
Considering the values of those involved
Preparing for future uses
Minimising negative impacts on people’s jobs
Ensuring meaningful transparency, communication and explanations

image of summit event, credit Joe Turner BBC

These ten components of the digital good emerge from our analysis of Digital Good Network research. You can read more about this in our paper: Evaluating the societal impacts of digital technologies.

The Digital Good Index is for anyone who builds, develops, procures, or wants to evaluate digital technologies.

It has three elements: the Digital Good Builder, a Glossary, and Case Studies of the Digital Good.

1. Digital Good Builder

The Digital Good Builder is a values-based tool to help evaluate whether a specific technology has positive outcomes for people and society. With the Digital Good Builder, you identify the ‘digital good’ values that underpin the technology you are evaluating, and identify an action plan to enable you to achieve these values.

The Digital Good Builder also links you to existing good guidance to help you improve the societal outcomes of your digital technology.

In Spring and Summer 2026, we are co-designing the Digital Good Builder with stakeholders across our network. If you’d be interested in getting involved in our co-design work, contact us.

An early version of the Digital Good Builder will be available to use from Autumn 2026.

The Digital Good builder is structured around the ten measures of the digital good:

Digital Good Measure	Example questions
1. Involving stakeholders, especially those who are minoritised or disadvantaged, listen to their views (in all stages – evaluation, design, development, deployment) 2. Using participatory, co-design methods (in all stages – evaluation, design, development, deployment)	Who might be disadvantaged or adversely affected by the technology? Is there deliberate engagement of these communities in your technology project? Are the methods you are using to include people accessible and inclusive?
3. Taking action towards equality	Is the technology accessible and easy to use? Does the technology accommodate a wide range of individual preferences & abilities? Can the technology be used by those with disabilities or those at risk of exclusion?
4. Taking action towards collective wellbeing	Does the technology improve people’s wellbeing, online and offline? If so, which people, and in which ways? What behaviours, actions or practices does the technology foster? Are they healthy or harmful?
5. Taking action towards minimising environmental impacts	Is there ways to ensure the technology is repairable, both for hardware and software? Does it require new hardware? Has the hardware used in the technology been developed from sustainable materials?
6. Ethical data practices	What data underpins the technology? Is it available, easy to access, proprietary, open? What happens to the data gathered for this technology – where does it go, who has access to it?
7. Considering the values of those involved	Who made the technology? What is the business model? Who profits? Who benefits financially from this technology? How?
8. Preparing for future uses	What future uses of the technology are envisioned? What might go wrong? How might it go wrong?
9. Minimising negative impacts on people’s jobs	Will developing, deploying or procuring the technology change people’s jobs? If so, how? Will it replace a skilled human task? Will it change organisational culture, for example by lessening human interaction?
10. Ensuring meaningful transparency, communication and explanations	Have you talked to users or affected groups about the aspects of the technology to make transparent? Are you communicating what users want or need to know? Are you making sure that you are not communicating too much/too little/too complex information?

2. Glossary

Equity, wellbeing, resilience, sustainability, commons, openness, allyship, civic tech, standards and benchmarks, stewardship – the terms used in evaluating the good digital society can be confusing. Often, they are contested, understood in different ways by different people. This can make values-based evaluation difficult.

The Digital Good Index will include a glossary of digital good concepts, like an index at the back of a book, to help you have conversations about how to evaluate digital technologies. It will draw on the range of topics and perspectives across our research network.

We will publish the glossary in Autumn 2026. We will also develop a set of evaluative cards based on the glossary, to prompt reflection and discussion.

3. Case studies of the digital good

Digital Good Network researchers are thinking about what makes a good digital society and how we get there, often focusing on particular aspects of our social world. This will include our existing research and findings from our final round of funded projects, Blueprints for a good digital society.

These reports will be a set of case studies for the digital good, outlining what a specific aspect of social life, or a social institution, looks like in a good digital society. By ‘a specific aspect of social life or a social institution’, we mean a particular, defined area or component of how people live, interact and organise themselves in society.

Find out more about our process on the Index

(Webinar recorded 9 June 2026)

Project team

Dr Dee Goddard

Engagement and Impact Specialist, Digital Good Network

Dr Kim Snooks

Postdoctoral Researcher – Digital Good Index, University of Sheffield

Dr Dan Richards

Technology Translations Lead, Digital Good Network

Lecturer in Data Prototyping and Visualisation, Lancaster University

Professor Helen Kennedy FBA FacSS

Director, Digital Good Network

Professor of Digital Society, University of Sheffield

Steering group

Professor Gina Neff

Associate Director & Sustainability Challenge Lead, Digital Good Network

Professor of Responsible AI, Queen Mary University of London

Sofia Gkiousou

Technology Policy Professional

Rachel Coldicutt

Founder and Executive Director, Careful Industries and Promising Trouble

Rachel Carey

Early Stage Startup Engagement Lead, Digital Good Network

Chief Scientist, Zinc VC

Octavia Field Reid

Associate Director, Ada Lovelace Institute

Sara Wajid MBE

Communities and Cultural Engagement Lead, Digital Good Network

Co-CEO, Birmingham Museums Trust

Digitising identity: navigating the digital immigration system and migrant experiences

Exploring the impact of increasingly digitalised systems for managing immigration applications.

Making harm visible: survivor-centred analysis of domestic homicide reviews using AI

Domestic homicide reviews are official reports in the UK written after a person is killed by a partner or family member to understand what went […]

Queer AI for the Ally

Educating even the most well-intentioned allies about queer identities and experiences can be emotionally burdensome. It can require disclosures that risk precarity and even danger. […]

Dgrf 3 Co Designing With Energy Communities

Co-designing with energy communities in Colombia a digital management platform to promote sustainable local energy markets

Working with energy communities in Colombia, this project will co-design and develop an interactive energy community management platform that supports local collective energy markets to […]

Dgrf 3 Accessible Digital Musical Instruments

Accessible digital musical instruments for inclusive and social practices

Engagement in music-making can be an enjoyable and rewarding learning experience that contributes to the intellectual, social, and personal development of children and young people. […]

Setting the standard: developing a benchmark for safe and effective AI in mental health support

This project will develop a practical, evidence-informed benchmark to evaluate the safety, effectiveness, and ethical standards of large language model AIs designed for use in […]

Building Digital Resilience Through Community Led Ai V2 (2)

Building digital resilience through community-led AI: co-creating safety tools and capacity with minority communities in Wales

Minority civic groups in Wales face increasing digital challenges, including digital exclusion and targeted online hate and racism. While AI tools offer potential solutions, they […]

Photo of a smartphone and stethoscope. On the phone screen there is a picture of a stethoscope on a blue background.

Digital health: the digital good in low-resource settings in Africa

Exploring ethical dilemmas with key stakeholders on the digital good in healthcare in low-resource settings.

black woman holding a smartphone with green cover and looking at the screen. From the phone there are 3 icons with white outlines, representing a message thread

Generative AI on messaging apps and the digital good

This project explores what good uses of GenAI on messaging apps look like from users’ perspectives.

Pages: 1234

Research

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Year