| Welcome to the Centre's Research Projects pages |
This page contains full details of all research projects currently being
conducted at the Centre. You will also find here staff details, lists of related
links, on-line publications, news, events and updates specific to each research
project.
| About the Research Programme |
Phase 2 of the AHRC Centre is driven by the overarching theme of understanding and
responding to the interconnectedness of systems of innovation, technological
development and promotion, regulation, human interaction, human rights and,
ultimately, the law. It is now clear that changes brought about by new
technologies are more profound than when the Phase 1 Centre began, creating new
types of content, produced by new types of producers, consumed in new ways, and
confronting the law with qualitatively different challenges. The central
research question is: how best can law be deployed in rising to new scientific,
cultural and technological challenges? Specific studies are used
to explore the parameters of the overarching themes. These reflect ideas that
are central to the identity of our Centre – namely, regulation and trust and
open-ness and secrecy.
The diagram below shows the groupings of the 11 projects under the two core
themes. Straddling all of this work are the Foresight Fora which are
subject-specific expert clusters dedicated to horizon-gazing in their field and
seeking natural collaborations and funding to respond to new challenges for law
and policy as they emerge.
Research Programme Overview
(Please click on the image to view projects)
| RESEARCH PROJECTS AND OUTPUTS |
Foresight Fora/ “Academic Think Tanks”
Three Academic Think Tanks will be established in IP & Media Law, IT Law
and Medical Law (Click here for more information) in order to:
- strengthen significantly research networks,
- develop a clear policy presence,
- anticipate and respond to new developments, and
- aid in the critical development of new paradigms where required.
An annual meeting of academics in IP & Media Law, IT law and medical law
will be established. The purpose of each meeting will be to -
- review and exchange information about current research in the fields,
including postgraduate activity;- identify future research needs and opportunities related to policy
concerns in a systematic way, cutting across the Centre’s areas of activity;
and
- determine research strategies and programmes to advance the policy agenda.
As well as traditional academic outputs, the group(s) will:
- produce
reports aimed in particular at policy-makers,
- hold conferences, seminars and workshops tailored for different specific
audiences (e.g. other academics, practitioners and business people), and
- establish a dedicated website run by the Centre.
In addition to
the Foresight Fora, the Centre is engaged in 11 collaborative projects, which
are grouped under two themes:
(A) Regulation & Trust, &
(B) Openness & Secrecy.
| Theme A - Regulation and Trust |
The theme of regulation and trust will explore how the law,
primarily through models of regulation, can help or hinder the optimal use of
new technologies; a sub-theme will examine whether legal or other regulation can
create, reinforce, replace or destroy trust in technologies, regulation or even
in law itself.
-
Biotechnology consortium
-
Convergence & media law reform
-
Regulation & technologies
-
Networks architecture
-
Deceptive computing
-
Public/Private paradigms in clinical research
governance
| Theme B - Openness and Secrecy |
The second theme, open-ness and secrecy, is closely linked to the
first. Stakeholders ranging from government and business to the individual
citizen and consumer may find reason to distrust new technologies as these are
applied to information either because it is too “open” or because it is
concealed and inaccessible. Interests in information are protected by a cluster
of potentially-conflicting laws, such as the contrasting human rights of privacy
and freedom of expression. Some laws, notably on intellectual property and data
protection, enable information to be controlled and kept secret, while other
laws, such as freedom of information and public sector information re-use, limit
governmental control on what it holds. These studies explore the resulting
tensions.
- IP, Technology and Education
- The Open Science business model
- Public sector information
- MIA surveillance systems
- Privacy, Security & Technology
Beyond the formal research programme sponsored by the Arts & Humanities Research
Council, the centre has other projects which build on its expertise of networks.
Free Trade and IT-based Businesses
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