Trilateral Research Ltd specialises in research and the provision of strategic, policy and regulatory advice on new technologies, privacy, risk, surveillance and security issues, and effective stakeholder engagement strategies and exploitation. Our focus is on understanding the impacts of new technologies and identifying solutions that enhance innovation in an ethical manner and bring the greatest benefit to society, whilst ensuring responsible practices. We do so by using foresight methods such as scenario construction and deconstruction, weak signal detection and by working with a variety of stakeholders ranging from technical specialists, to policy-makers and citizen groups.
Trilateral has strong and established experience in qualitative and quantitative social science research methodologies. Ninety per cent of its research staff has post-doctoral experience and professional qualifications in disciplines such as social sciences, data sciences, science and technology studies, and law. Trilateral is currently running more than twenty H2020 projects and is providing research, advisory and technology development services to private and public sector organisations.
Trilateral Research Ltd is based in Ireland and has a related entity in the UK, with which it shares resources and expertise. Trilateral is a multidisciplinary research services company. Its team collaborates across social science and technology development to bring insights from each into supporting data-driven innovation.
Role in PaCE:
Trilateral is leading the work on ethics (WP6), where it ensures that the project is conducted in an ethical manner, and provides ethical guidance to the development of the project’s outputs. Trilateral is also leading the scenario analysis component of WP4. It contributes to other work packages in particular supporting case studies of populism and the development of usable and realistic policy recommendations. Trilateral’s understanding of the social impacts of technology supports the project in understanding the role of communications technologies in contemporary populism and the creation of ICT tools.
Key personnel
David Wright, Trilateral founder and Director, has initiated, led and participated in numerous successful consortia for the European Commission’s Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Framework Programmes (FP5, FP6, FP7), Horizon 2020 and numerous tender clients. He has participated in four ENISA expert groups developing scenarios and assessing risks associated with e-health, the Internet of Things, cloud computing, and privacy and trust. He was a member of the European Commission’s trust- at-risk foresight expert group and has done related research on inequality, security, technological innovation, cloud computing, and certification and responsible innovation. He has published many papers in peer-reviewed journals and four books, including the first and only book on Privacy Impact Assessment (Springer, 2012). He wrote the first paper on ethical impact assessment (Wright, David, “A framework for the ethical impact assessment of information technology”, Ethics and Information Technology, Vol. 13, No. 3, September 2011, pp. 199-226.). He also wrote the first paper on surveillance impact assessment (Wright, David, and Charles D. Raab, “Constructing a surveillance impact assessment”, Computer Law & Security Review, Vol. 28, No. 6, Dec 2012.).
Dr David Barnard-Wills, Research Manager. His research expertise combines social science training with knowledge of technology, specialising in the intersection of technology and policy (and in particular in the areas of security, privacy and data protection). He has conducted research for Trilateral on the cyber security of smart homes, privacy and security certification schemes, public attitudes to privacy and security, data protection policy and governance, privacy-by-design and societal impact assessment. He has published in journals including Computer Law and Security Review, Science and Public Policy, International Data Privacy Law, Political Studies, and Space and Culture, and he is the author of Surveillance and Identity: Discourse, Subjectivity and the State (2012). Clients and consulting work have included the European Commission, the JRC, and ENISA. He has a PhD in Politics from the University of Nottingham, where he was a member of the Centre for the Study of Social and Global Justice, as well as an MA in Political Science. He is a member of the Surveillance Studies Network, an Associate Member of the Higher Education Academy, and a regular journal reviewer. He has previously held positions as a Research Fellow in Informatics and Systems Engineering at Cranfield University, in Political Science and International Studies at the University of Birmingham, and at the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology.
Dr Anaïs Rességuier, Research Analyst. Anais’ main research interests lie at the intersection of the ethics and the politics of emerging technologies and the ethics of research in this area. She makes use of this expertise in PaCE to ensure the project develops in a way that respects research ethics values and principles both within the project lifetime as well as in the project’s outputs. She enjoys engaging in ethical matters with a variety of stakeholders, including the general public and sharing insights from social sciences and philosophy to people beyond these disciplines, including technical people and practitioners. Anaïs’ academic background is in philosophy, ethics, and political science. She completed a PhD in Political Theory from Sciences Po Paris (CEVIPOF – Center for Political Research) on the notion of care and the humanitarian sector.
For more information about Trilateral Research Ltd, please visit their website.