Projects per year
Personal profile
SUMMARY of research interests (100 words)
Bran is a qualitative researcher focusing on trust, privacy and ethical considerations (i.e. social responsibility) surrounding data and data systems. Her research explores different aspects of trust through ethnographic case studies, develops conceptual models of trust that help in understanding a research agenda for developing trusted data systems, and develops practitioner guidelines for creating trusted data systems. She approaches the development of socio-technical systems from a human perspective, applying an understanding of how people come to trust one another in the real world towards understanding how to design systems that people trust.
Profile
Bran is appointed through the Data Science Institute and jointly appointed to both the School of Computing and Communication (50%) and the Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts design group ImaginationLancaster (50%). Her background is multidisciplinary, spanning the psychology, sociology, anthropology, and design, and her PhD is in Digital Innovation.
Current Teaching
SCC.412 Advanced HCI 2
LICA.341 Design Directions
Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years
Recent external collaboration on country/territory level. Dive into details by clicking on the dots or
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DSI: Trustworthy and Accountable Decision-Making Frameworks for Biodiversity - A Virtual Labs based Approach
Armstrong, A. (Co-Investigator), Knowles, B. (Co-Investigator) & Bebbington, J. (Principal Investigator)
12/08/22 → 11/02/26
Project: Research
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Future Places: A Digital Economy Centre on Understanding Place Through Pervasive Computing
Sas, C. (Co-Investigator), Short, R. (Co-Investigator), Gere, C. (Co-Investigator), Knowles, B. (Co-Investigator), Davies, N. (Co-Investigator), Leslie, D. (Co-Investigator), Knight, J. (Co-Investigator), Leeson, A. (Co-Investigator), Harper, R. (Principal Investigator), Cruickshank, L. (Co-Investigator), Davies, N. (Co-Investigator), Race, N. (Co-Investigator), Friday, A. (Co-Investigator), Houben, S. (Co-Investigator), Harper, R. (Principal Investigator), Blair, G. (Co-Investigator), Rouncefield, M. (Co-Investigator) & Garraghan, P. (Co-Investigator)
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
1/10/20 → 28/02/26
Project: Research
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DSI: Reducing the Global ICT Footprint via Self-adaptive Large-scale (DCMS Supplement)
Widdicks, K. (Co-Investigator), Garraghan, P. (Principal Investigator), Friday, A. (Co-Investigator), Blair, G. (Co-Investigator) & Knowles, B. (Co-Investigator)
1/12/22 → 31/05/23
Project: Research
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DSI: Equity for the Older: Beyond Digital Access
Knowles, B. (Principal Investigator), Mullagh, L. (Co-Investigator), Mullagh, L. (Co-Investigator), Fledderjohann, J. (Co-Investigator), Knowles, B. (Principal Investigator), Swarbrick, C. (Co-Investigator), Harper, R. (Co-Investigator), Mullagh, L. (Co-Investigator), Knowles, B. (Principal Investigator) & Harper, R. (Co-Investigator)
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
1/10/22 → 31/08/25
Project: Research
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DSI: Design Principles and Responsible Innovation for a Sustainable Digital Economy (Paris-DE)
Blair, G. (Principal Investigator), Knowles, B. (Co-Investigator), Widdicks, K. (Co-Investigator) & Smith, M. (Research Associate)
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
1/09/21 → 28/02/25
Project: Research
Research output
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Beyond Binary: Re-imagining Age using Gender in HCI for Inclusive Design
Ashcroft, A. & Knowles, B., 22/02/2025, (Accepted/In press).Research output: Contribution to conference - Without ISBN/ISSN › Conference paper › peer-review
Open AccessFile23 Downloads (Pure) -
Beyond the 'Unofficial Proxy' - Navigating Technology Support for Older Adults' Banking Activities with Close Others
Barber, P., Soubutts, E., Knowles, B. & Singh, A., 16/01/2025, (Accepted/In press) CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’25), April 26–May 01, 2025, Yokohama, Japan. New York: ACMResearch output: Contribution in Book/Report/Proceedings - With ISBN/ISSN › Conference contribution/Paper › peer-review
Open AccessFile13 Downloads (Pure) -
Climate Change: What is Computing’s Responsibility? (Dagstuhl Perspectives Workshop 25122)
Knowles, B., Hanson, V. L., Becker, C., Berners-Lee, M., Chien, A. A., Combemale, B., Coroamă, V. C., De Bosschere, K., Ding, Y., Friday, A., Gamazaychikov, B., Hardman, L., Hinterholzer, S., Höjer, M., Kaack, L., Kuijer, L., Ligozat, A.-L., Muehlberg, J. T., Nah, Y. & Olsson, T. & 7 others, , 17/11/2025, Schloss Dagstuhl- Leibniz-Zentrum fur Informatik GmbH, Dagstuhl Publishing. 18 p.Research output: Book/Report/Proceedings › Other report
Open Access -
HCI and Older Adults: The Critical Turn and What Comes Next
Lazar, A., Brewer, R. & Knowles, B., 18/06/2025, In: Foundations and Trends in HCI. 19, 2, p. 112-212 101 p.Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Open AccessFile85 Downloads (Pure) -
Hidden Opportunities for Elder Living: Understanding Shared Technology Troubles and Benefits for Older Adults in the UK Cost of Living Crisis
Soubutts, E., Singh, A., Ashcroft, A., Knowles, B., McDowell, J., Tsouvalis, J., Fledderjohann, J., Swarbrick, C., Harper, R. H. R. & Rogers, Y., 16/01/2025, (Accepted/In press) CHI 2025 ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. ACMResearch output: Contribution in Book/Report/Proceedings - With ISBN/ISSN › Conference contribution/Paper › peer-review
Open AccessFile19 Downloads (Pure)
Activities
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Generational Dynamics in HCI
Ashcroft, A. (Organiser) & Knowles, B. (Organiser)
15/07/2024Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Participation in workshop, seminar, course
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PARIS-DE Workshop on Rebound Effects and Digital Technology
Widdicks, K. (Organiser), Smith, M. (Organiser), Blair, G. (Organiser), Knowles, B. (Organiser), Samuel, G. (Organiser), Lucivero, F. (Organiser), Somavilla, L. (Organiser) & Jirotka, M. (Organiser)
27/04/2022Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Participation in workshop, seminar, course
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ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Knowles, B. (Speaker)
4/05/2019 → 9/05/2019Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Participation in conference -Mixed Audience
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CHI 2019 Workshop
Knowles, B. (Speaker)
4/05/2019Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Participation in workshop, seminar, course
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IEEE Pervasive Computing (Journal)
Knowles, B. (Peer reviewer)
2018 → 2019Activity: Publication peer-review and editorial work types › Publication peer-review
Press/Media
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Why don’t we just… stop using AI to supercharge austerity?
Knowles, B. & Fledderjohann, J.
10/05/23
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Newspaper Article
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The Climate Impact of ICT
Widdicks, K., Friday, A., Freitag, C., Berners-Lee, M., Blair, G. & Knowles, B.
10/09/21 → 10/11/22
39 items of Media coverage, 2 Media contributions
Press/Media: Research
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Why Don’t We Just… make policy that fulfils human rights?
Fledderjohann, J., Clair, A. & Knowles, B.
1/10/21
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Research
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Money with memory: how to plug local economy leaks
Coulton, P., Whittle, J., Lochrie, M., Knowles, B. & Hallam, M.
11/07/14
1 item of Media coverage
Press/Media: Research
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Datasets
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HCI and Ageing literature corpus analysis: CHI conference 2014-2024
Knowles, B. (Creator) & Fledderjohann, J. (Contributor), Lancaster University, 22/07/2025
DOI: 10.17635/lancaster/researchdata/735
Dataset
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The real climate and transformative impact of ICT
Freitag, C. (Data Collector), Berners-Lee, M. (Data Collector), Widdicks, K. (Creator), Knowles, B. (Data Collector), Blair, G. (Data Collector) & Friday, A. (Data Collector), Lancaster University, 2021
DOI: 10.17635/lancaster/researchdata/477
Dataset
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