uk-gap-map_take action

No public funder for PETs deployment or privacy infrastructure maintenance

openclaimed ·shipped ·
outcome →your data, yours
What is missing

The UK produces world-class privacy-enhancing-technologies guidance, with the ICO's 2023 publication a world first, and research through REPHRAIN and EPSRC, and DSIT and the ICO shipped a cost-benefit tool in November 2024 after the ICO's own report found adoption persistently low. Translation money is one-off. The UK-US PETs prize ended in 2023, the NHS and US National Cancer Institute pilot of 2025 has no scale-up vehicle, and no UK body pays for maintenance of open-source privacy infrastructure the way Germany's Sovereign Tech Fund does. Innovate UK has no standing PETs programme.

Why it matters

PETs are the technical resolution of the growth-versus-privacy dilemma, enabling data use without data exposure, and a plausible export strength. Guidance without procurement pull or deployment funding has demonstrably failed to move adoption for three years.

What would fill it

A DSIT and Innovate UK PETs adoption fund at £20-50m: procurement-linked challenges in NHS, ONS and HMRC data sharing, plus maintenance grants for open-source privacy tooling, or a privacy strand of any future UK sovereign tech fund.

// Build together: Counterparty: DSIT/Innovate UK or a willing data-holding body (NHS, ONS, HMRC); a philanthropy-seeded PETs challenge with one public partner needs no legislation.

Why urgency 2

PETs could dissolve the growth-versus-privacy dilemma, and translation money stays one-off with no standing programme; the fund is straightforward and lacks time pressure.

THE FIRST STEP · SMALL ENOUGH TO SAY YES TO
A 120-day pilot on one existing, stalled data-sharing use case: define the privacy constraint, run the challenge, publish the evaluation jointly. No procurement commitment beyond the pilot.
sources: ico.org.uk · gov.uk · gds.blog.gov.uk · rephrain.ac.uk
ATTEMPTS · 0 ACTIVEnon-exclusive
// nobody on this yet: be first
// no account: your claim posts publicly and lands in the thread below
COUNTERPARTY WANTED
government-bodies If you can convene one, open the dialogue →
THREAD · 0 POSTSreplies post via github, in publicopen on github ↗
// quiet so far. the dossier is the first post: reply below or take the gap.

Distinct but adjacent

№013State-led

No UK Sovereign Tech Fund for maintaining critical open source infrastructure

Germany funds critical-code maintainers; Britain has no equivalent

№018Build now

No UK small-grants vehicle for public-interest internet technology (NGI analogue)

Small grants for public-interest tech; the EU tap closed, the UK never had one

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Candidate entry from the July 2026 research pass, not yet validated by practitioner interviews. Added 2026-07-07 · last verified 2026-07-07 · review by 2027-01-07. Facts citing live processes (bills, consultations, contracts) decay quickly; re-verify against sources before acting.