REPHRAIN will direct the UK’s considerable academic, industry, policy and third sector resources to deliver novel socio-technical advances that address the tensions and imbalances between the socio-economic benefits of a digital economy and the online harms that manifest. The Centre will redress this balance through fundamental interdisciplinary research on the underpinning key tensions that reflect the critical debates impacting the future of industry, policy, practice and society-at-large. Each project addresses multiple scientific objectives, therefore may cross multiple missions, providing theoretically, empirically and experimentally grounded outcomes that bring balance, assurance and stability with respect to protecting citizens online. As they begin to develop these outcomes will be collated both in support of projects yet to start and made available via the REPHRAIN Toolbox, addressing a comprehensive set of harms.
Inaugural Projects
In its establishment, REPHRAIN conceived 25 inaugural projects from its five founding institutions across the three Missions. Each project addresses multiple scientific objectives, therefore may cross multiple missions, providing theoretically, empirically and experimentally grounded outcomes that bring balance, assurance and stability with respect to protecting citizens online. As they begin to develop these outcomes will be collated both in support of projects yet to start and made available via the REPHRAIN Toolbox, addressing a comprehensive set of harms.

























Strategic Funding Calls
Following successful REPHRAIN Strategic Funding Calls, we have launched several new projects at new partner institutions, as listed below. As with our inaugural projects, each project addresses multiple scientific objectives, and therefore may cross multiple missions, providing theoretically, empirically and experimentally grounded outcomes that bring balance, assurance and stability with respect to protecting citizens online. We look forward to sharing these outcomes with you, adding to our comprehensive set of online harms.
Strategic Funding Projects
Call 1








Strategic Funding Projects
Call 2




Strategic Funding Projects
Call 3









Strategic Funding Projects
Call 4




Strategic Funding Projects
Call 5



Ethics
The aim of the REPHRAIN Ethics Board is to oversee and promote the highest standards of ethics and integrity in all aspects of REPHRAIN’s research. Conducting research to the highest ethical standard – with robust oversight procedures – will be critical to the success of REPHRAIN in addressing its three missions to deliver socio-technical advances for protecting citizens online.
REPHRAIN places ethical oversight centrally to its research processes, establishing an independent ethical review process to review all research conducted as part of the Centre (both core and commissioned). The Board operates under the principles set out in UUK’s Concordat to Support Research Integrity, and will further adhere to the UKRI/ESRC core principles for ethical research.
The ethics process follows two-stages
- All researchers need to secure ethical approval from their appropriate institutional research ethics committee before applying to the REPHRAIN Ethics Board.
- Where a project does not ordinarily require ethical review at a host institution (e.g., desk research, secondary data analysis), please submit to the REPHRAIN Ethics Board directly.