Research institute

Web Science Institute

Java coding in different colours on an angled computer screen

We bring together the university’s world-class, interdisciplinary, socio-technical expertise in web science, data science and artificial intelligence to leverage the unique role of online technologies in tackling global challenges.

We work to create collaborations within the university and with industry, Governments and third sector organisations, that bring interdisciplinary socio-technical insights and impacts to the world’s most pressing problems. We have a key focus on interdisciplinary AI and are working with global partners in data, platform governance, social trust, democratic innovation and technological sustainability to create new knowledge that leads to new solutions. Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HCAI) is core to our research as well as continuing our position as global leaders in Web Science.

We established the research area of web science to study this ecosystem that we have created, and to understand how machines and people are working together collectively.
Dame Wendy Hall
Director of the Web Science Institute
Web science continues to expand, and now includes the role of data in society and the development of human-centred AIs.
Professor Leslie Carr
Professor of Web Science and Deputy Director of the Web Science Institute
Work on trust, bias and effective governance within AI and web science is central to what we’re doing.
Professor Pauline Leonard
Professor of Sociology and Deputy Director of the Web Science Institute

Can AI be used to undermine elections?

Online political disinformation and voter profiling spiked during recent elections in the UK and US. How can we now protect democracies from threats posed by AI?

Working out if a computer can play jazz

A Southampton researcher was awarded an Alan Turing Institute fellowship to investigate whether AI can replicate the complexities of jazz improvisation.

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Contact us

Please get in touch with WSI regarding any interdisciplinary research, collaborations, education, enterprise, or policy opportunities.

Web Science Institute
Building 32
University of Southampton
Highfield Campus
Southampton
SO17 1BJ

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Monday to Friday, 8.30am to 5.30pm UK time