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The Alan Turing Institute will be hosting the ‘Digital Aid: Understanding the Digital Challenges facing Humanitarian Assistance’ workshop with GCRF on Monday 9 September 2019.

The event will bring together academics and practitioners working in humanitarian organisations to examine research questions arising from the intersection of global digital developments and the provision of effective humanitarian assistance in low- and middle-income countries affected by conflict and displacement. The workshop aims to better understand the needs and the issues at the frontiers of development aid for the benefit of humanitarian organisations. It will also help inform UKRI’s Global Challenges Research fund as it sets priorities for funding going forward. For researchers involved, it will provide the opportunity to shape practices of research funding, aid delivery, as well as offers the opportunity to help identify the application and development of AI for the benefit of more vulnerable populations across the world and the governments and organisations committed to supporting people in politically unstable contexts. The expectation is that the ideas generated from the workshop would result in a commissioned report with emergent priorities and recommendations for the humanitarian sector.

The workshop will explore the following research questions in three breakout sessions:

The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Humanitarian Assistance

• Nowcasting and forecasting to aid humanitarian response
• Facial Recognition for restoring family links

The Data Vault

• Privacy, cyber security and data protection

The Digital Conditions of Aid

• Humanitarian principles, biometrics, digital ID, inclusion, data governance and ethics in the digital world

Researchers interested in participating in the workshop should express their interest to Geoff Hill (GCRF@ukri.org), ideally before 12 August. Space is limited so please notify Geoff Hill as early as possible if researchers would like their EoI to be considered.