On a daily basis huge amounts of geospatial data and information that record location is created across a wide range of environmental, engineered and social systems. Globally approximately 2 quintillion bytes of data is generated daily which is location based. The economic benefits of geospatial data and information have been widely recognised, with the global geospatial industry predicted to be worth $500bn by 2020. In the UK the potential benefits of 'opening' up geospatial data is estimated by the government to be worth an additional £11bn annually to the economy and led to the announcement of a £80m Geospatial Commission. However, if the full economic benefits of the geospatial data revolution are to be realised, a new generation of geospatial engineers, scientists and practitioners are required who have the knowledge, technical skills and innovation to transform our understanding of the ever increasingly complex world we inhabit, to deliver highly paid jobs and economic prosperity, coupled with benefits to society. To seize this opportunity, the Centre for Doctoral Training in Geospatial Systems will deliver technically skilled doctoral graduates equipped with an industry focus, to work across a diverse range of applications including infrastructure systems, smart cities, urban-infrastructure resilience, energy systems, spatial mobility, structural monitoring, spatial planning, public health and social inclusion. Doctoral graduates will be trained in five core integrated geospatial themes: Spatial data capture and interpretation: modern spatial data capture and monitoring approaches, including Earth observation satellite image data, UAVs and drone data, and spatial sensor networks; spatial data informs us on the current status and changes taking place in different environments (e.g., river catchments and cities). Statistical and mathematical methods: innovative mathematical approaches and statistical techniques, such as predictive analytics, required to analyse and interpret huge volumes of geospatial data; these allow us to recognise and quantify within large volumes of data important locations and relationships. Big Data spatial analytics: cutting edge computational skills required for geospatial data analysis and modelling, including databases, cloud computing, pattern recognition and machine learning; modern computing approaches are the only way that vast volumes of location data can be analysed. Spatial modelling and simulation: to design and implement geospatial simulation models for predictive purposes; predictive spatial models allow us to understand where and when investment, interventions and actions are required in the future. Visualisation and decision support: will train students in modern methods of spatial data visualisation such as virtual and augmented reality, and develop the skills on how to deliver and present the outputs of geospatial data analysis and modelling; skills required to ensure that objective decisions and choices are made using geospatial data and information. The advanced training received by students will be employed within interdisciplinary PhD research projects co-designed with 40 partners ranging from government agencies, international engineering consultants, infrastructure operators and utility companies, and geospatial technology companies; organisations that are ideally positioned to leverage of the Big Data, Cloud Computing, Artificial Intelligence and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies that are predicted to be the key to "accelerating geospatial industry growth" into the future. Throughout their training and research, students will benefit from cohort-based activities focused on group-working and industry interaction around innovation and entrepreneurship to ensure that our outstanding researchers are able to deliver innovation for economic prosperity across the spectrum of the geospatial industry and applied user sectors.

The Centre for Digital Citizens (CDC) will address emerging challenges of digital citizenship, taking an inclusive, participatory approach to the design and evaluation of new technologies and services that support 'smart', 'data-rich' living in urban, rural and coastal communities. Core to the Centre's work will be the incubation of sustainable 'Digital Social Innovations' (DSI) that will ensure digital technologies support diverse end-user communities and will have long-lasting social value and impact beyond the life of the Centre. Our technological innovations will be co-created between academic, industrial, public and third sector partners, with citizens supporting co-creation and delivery of research. Through these activities, CDC will incubate user-led social innovation and sustainable impact for the Digital Economy (DE), at scale, in ways that have previously been difficult to achieve. The CDC will build on a substantial joint legacy and critical mass of DE funded research between Newcastle and Northumbria universities, developing the trajectory of work demonstrated in our highly successful Social Inclusion for the Digital Economy (SIDE) hub, our Digital Civics Centre for Doctoral Training and our Digital Economy Research Centre (DERC). The CDC is a response to recent research that has challenged simplified notions of the smart urban environment and its inhabitants, and highlighted the risks of emerging algorithmic and automated futures. The Centre will leverage our pioneering participatory design and co-creative research, our expertise in digital participatory platforms and data-driven technologies, to deliver new kinds of innovation for the DE, that empowers citizens. The CDC will focus on four critical Citizen Challenge areas arising from our prior work: 'The Well Citizen' addresses how use of shared personal data, and publicly available large-scale data, can inform citizens' self-awareness of personal health and wellbeing, of health inequalities, and of broader environmental and community wellbeing; 'The Safe Citizen' critically examines online and offline safety, including issues around algorithmic social justice and the role of new data technologies in supporting fair, secure and equitable societies; 'The Connected Citizen' explores next-generation citizen-led digital public services, which can support and sustain civic engagement and action in communities, and engagement in wider socio-political issues through new sustainable (openly managed) digital platforms; and 'The Ageless Citizen' investigates opportunities for technology-enhanced lifelong learning and opportunities for intergenerational engagement and technologies to support growth across an entire lifecourse. CDC pilot projects will be spread across the urban, rural and costal geography of the North East of England, embedded in communities with diverse socio-economic profiles and needs. Driving our programme to address these challenges is our 'Engaged Citizen Commissioning Framework'. This framework will support citizens' active engagement in the co-creation of research and critical inquiry. The framework will use design-led 'initiation mechanisms' (e.g. participatory design workshops, hackathons, community events, citizen labs, open innovation and co-production platform experiments) to support the co-creation of research activities. Our 'Innovation Fellows' (postdoctoral researchers) will engage in a 24-month social innovation programme within the CDC. They will pilot DSI projects as part of highly interdisciplinary, multi-stakeholder teams, including academics and end-users (e.g. Community Groups, NGO's, Charities, Government, and Industry partners). The outcome of these pilots will be the development of further collaborative bids (Research Council / Innovate UK / Charity / Industry funded), venture capital pitches, spin-outs and/or social enterprises. In this way the Centre will act as a catalyst for future innovation-focused DE activity.

The Northern Health Futures (NortHFutures) hub aims to create a world-leading healthcare technology (health-tech) development ecosystem. This will address unmet health needs and inequalities by supporting: inclusive digital skills training and sharing; research, innovation and entrepreneurship, enabled by digital design. Based in the North East and North Cumbria (NENC), with national and global reach, NortHFutures will support underserved communities, as it is known that national disparity of investment in NENC negatively impacts population health and wellbeing, and that a 'levelling up' of investment is needed to stimulate socio-economic and cultural growth for all, to encourage living and ageing well. NortHFutures builds upon the joined-up NENC approach to people-powered digital health innovation, as our regional Integrated Care Board (ICB) uniquely involves local authorities, communities, and citizens. Academic team members have a research track record that is stakeholder-involved and civic- and community-engaged. They are world-leading on understanding (i) health inequalities from medical, social, and design perspectives, and (ii) the opportunities for enrichment and enablement related to ageing well, connecting rural and urban populations, and pioneering applications of data science. In the pilot phase, we draw on this specialist expertise to address evidenced unmet health needs in NENC, (which have national and global importance): children and young people's health and nutrition; mental health and wellbeing; development of digital surgical pathways (for monitoring patient journeys beyond the hospital); living well with multiple long-term conditions. We combine the strengths and resources of 6 universities (Newcastle, Cumbria, Durham, Northumbria, Sunderland and Teesside), bringing regional investment in NIHR services, facilities and Applied Research Collaborations, plus National Innovation Centres for Ageing (NICA), Data (NICD) and Rural Enterprise (NICRE), National Horizons Centre (NHC), EPSRC Digital Economy programmes in data and digital citizens, and Health Data Research UK, the UK's national institute for health data science. NortHFutures supports new planned Centres, including Northumbria's Centre for Health & Social Equity and Cumbria's new campus and medical school. These University offers combine with an extensive partner network, including: ICB-NENC, 7 NHS Trusts, NHS Business Services Authority, Department of Health and Social Care, Health Education England; VCSE organisations delivering community-based services; industry partners - from SMEs to global tech giants; civic bodies such as Local and Combined Authorities; existing health research networks (e.g. AHSN-NENC, Newcastle Health Innovation Partnership); and innovation accelerators (e.g. Innovation SuperNetwork). Through an integrated, regional approach uniting this consortium for the first time, NortHFutures ambitiously aims to establish global leadership in Digital Health. To deliver this we will develop a supportive community infrastructure. We will co-design a digital brokerage service to connect and amplify partners' work, to offer and consume expertise, services and facilities (supporting acceleration of health-tech companies at differing tech-readiness levels). We will pioneer a Live Digital Health Databank, to explore, and train for, advanced healthcare data analytics, combining live data flows with care records (e.g. Great North Care Record). This will support personalised health diagnostics and interventions, giving our hub a unique value proposition to companies wishing to explore advanced data technologies. We will invest in Extended Reality pilots, to open up possibilities for clinical practice and service delivery. Our approaches will embed Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI), and Patient and Public Engagement (PPIE) throughout, to deliver health-tech that supports care beyond the hospital and is co-designed with end-users.

Technological advances in Artificial Intelligence and Big Data, have already given rise to extensive socio-economic transformation and new and emerging technologies, such as distributed ledgers and the Internet of Things, are set to further revolutionise the information and service economy, and public services. Yet, technological innovation has the potential to also dis-benefit the most vulnerable, amplify existing forms of injustice and create new forms of exclusion in socio-economic life, thus further exacerbate socio-economic inequality and social division. That the whole of society benefits from progress in the Digital Economy is national priority, both morally and economically as those who are most vulnerable have the greatest need of opportunities for socio-economic participation. Taking a Social Justice approach, this NetworkPlus focuses on how the design of new and emerging technologies in the Digital Economy, and their application, can empower, emancipate and more equitably distribute opportunities for economic development to all citizens, consumers and employees. This EPSRC NetworkPlus: Social Justice through the Digital Economy aims to bring together and resource partners from academia, industry, government and civil society to understand, explore and respond, together, to the potential of new and emerging technologies to make the UK socio-economic life fairer for all. The NetworksPlus activities will focus on three challenge areas: Algorithmic Social Justice; Digital Security for All; Fairer Futures for Businesses and Workforces. Algorithmic Social Justice examines fairness in the design and application of AI algorithms in automated and semi-automated decision-making processes. It asks how can large data sets be classified and interpreted to inform, for example, care or health interventions programs or city planning and how can AI algorithms be made less opaque and criteria used to design them fairer and transparent. Digital Security for All investigates new and better ways to model digital security that increase people's sense of agency, while meeting their security needs and protection of assets in public and commercial online service delivery. For example, this challenge area asks in what ways can online services be designed to better support people's sense of agency and trust, while assuring security in sharing personal data online. Fairer Futures for Businesses and Workforces considers how new 'sharing economy' platforms can be designed to realise more ethical business models and equal opportunities for economic development. For example, this theme asks what platforms can be designed to support peer-to-peer markets places that cater for those who have little or no assets; and what are the implications for a fair workforce representation in the digital era. The NetworkPlus will enable new ways to support effective collaborations between academic and non-academic communities and organisations through a range of activities, including a curated series on events in the three thematic priorities and an innovative and more directed process of project commissioning. The NetworkPlus will deliver curated events and activities-including symposia, hands-on workshops, theory-hacks and design and development sprints, aiming to increase capacity, upskilling and foster trans-disciplinary dialogue, knowledge exchange between academic and non-academic communities as well as. The NetworkPlus will deliver a novel curated commissioning process of activities designed to support EPS doctoral researchers and Early Career Researchers developing impactful project proposals in partnership with industry, government, third sector and civil society.

This project presents a unique performance arts and technology sector collaboration between UK and China-based partners, which will showcase how new technologies, including immersive XR, may open up and bridge experiential theatrical worlds and engage new and younger audiences. All the world is a stage and the stage is a world, but the nature of these worlds of experience is changing dramatically with the potential of new digital affordances. Through two workshop processes of ideation in Shanghai and Newcastle, theatre companies, technology developers and academics will develop project concepts to be implemented in shows accessed both locally and remotely in the UK and China.