The International Society for Study of Digital Footprints (ISSDF) is a global community of researchers, practitioners, and organisations using digital footprints data to understand and improve health and wellbeing. We bring together experts working with transaction data, online records, finance data, wearables, geo-location and other emerging data sources to advance research.
ISSDF grew out of the annual Digital Footprints Conference, and now serves as the leading international forum for collaboration across academia, government, industry, and the private sector. Our mission is to accelerate the use of digital footprints data for societal benefit: supporting better decision-making, fairer policies, and healthier lives.
Through our events, training, webinars, and newsletters, we will provide ongoing insights into how digital footprint data is being linked, analysed, governed, and applied around the world. We highlight best practice, and advocate for approaches that centre ethics, transparency, and public involvement.
By joining ISSDF, and you become part of a growing global network shaping the future of social-data science.
Leadership Team
(University of Leeds)
Professor Michelle Morris is a University Academic Fellow in the School of Medicine at the University of Leeds, based in the Leeds Institute for Data Analytics. She is an interdisciplinary researcher with a background spanning: health informatics, geography, nutritional epidemiology and health economics. Her primary research interests are in spatial and social variations in diet, lifestyle and health and how new and emerging forms of data can be best utilised to understand these. She leads a team focused on the use of new forms of ‘big’ and spatial data in health research, working closely with industry partners on food and activity data. Currently, she directs the multidisciplinary ESRC Strategic Network for Obesity and has developed a diverse teaching portfolio, including spatial analytics and visualisation for health. With this unique career history she is well placed to achieve her vision to cross discipline boundaries bringing together people, data and methods to improve health through informatics – specifically combining consumer analytics with health informatics and using ‘big data’ to benefit patient outcomes.
(University of Bristol)
Dr Anya Skatova is an Associate Professor at the University of Bristol. Her research focuses on digital footprints, specifically loyalty and banking cards, and working on realising the value of using these data to improve population health. In addition, she investigates a range of issues related to public attitudes to data sharing, prosocial behaviour and fundamental questions about individual differences in decision-making and choice. Anya is a Turing Fellow at Alan Turing Institute and a UKRI Future Leader Fellow at Population Health Sciences, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol. Currently, she leads Digital Footprints Lab, which studies use of novel data to understand human behaviour and health. Anya Skatova works with an extensive network of stakeholders from industry, government and third sector. She has previously led responses to government consultations, advised UK government (e.g., the Centre of Data Ethics and Innovation/Department for Sport, Media and Culture) and non-government authorities (e.g., Finance Conduct Authority), and worked with a wide range of business and non-profit organisations such Office for National Statistics.
(University of Nottingham)
John Harvey is an Associate Professor based in N/LAB at the University of Nottingham. He specialises in the study of consumer behaviour. His research focuses on the use of aggregated behavioural data (such as loyalty card transactions, telecommunications records, and social network data) to address social issues. John’s recent work has used these forms of proprietary data to examine problems such as food and nutritional security, diet-related disease, food waste, loneliness, deprivation, vulnerable migration, and the sustainability of food shopping behaviour. His work typically involves mixed methods, but has a particular emphasis on observational methods that examine digital footprints i.e. information that exists on the Internet as a result of our online activity. In short, questioning why we give so much of our private data to companies and expect that they do nothing prosocial with it in return.
(University of Nottingham)
Professor Alexa Spence has primary expertise in environmental psychology, social cognition, and behaviour change. She chairs the People and Society research group within the School of Psychology at the University of Nottingham. Here, she supervises PhD students and postdoctoral students on topics including sustainable food, acceptance of hydrogen technologies, citizen science, and well-being impacts of engaging digital technologies. The commonality across research topics is the focus on perceptions, communications, and behaviour change. Spence often works across disciplines and liaises extensively with third sector and public sector groups. She is currently co-investigator of Horizon Digital Economy Research Institute and the Trust in Autonomous Systems hub. Additionally she acts as an advisor on several other academic projects as well as within the users group within the International Energy Agency’s Technology Collaboration Partnership. Professional memberships include the International Environmental Psychology Network, the British Environmental Psychology Society, and the International Society for the Study of Digital Footprints (ISSDF).
(Statens Serum Institut)
Dr Frederik Møller is a dedicated and innovative researcher with strong professional perseverance and a passion for improving public health. His work focuses on collecting and analysing high-quality data for epidemiological studies that generate valuable insights to benefit both patients and society. His primary research interests lie in examining how our consumption—what we buy—affects health, with a particular focus on food- and waterborne as well as zoonotic infections. Additionally, he investigates how diseases, especially infectious diseases, spread within social networks such as schools and families.
(University of Nottingham)
James Goulding is a Professor of Data Science at the University of Nottingham and Director of the N/LAB research centre (www.nlab.org.uk); He holds a BSc in Econometrics, MSc in Computer Science, and PhD in Artificial Intelligence, with expertise in the development of novel techniques to analyse large-scale human behavioural data. His research focuses on bridging the gap between behavioural science and recent advances in AI, Machine Learning and Smart Data research. He has >100 international peer-reviewed publications crossing disciplines of social and computer science, winner of ACM Engelbart prize for data theory and a Centre for DE prize for data visualisation. Since 2017. He has been PI/CO-I on Research programmes of over £21m since 2015 (EPSRC, ESRC, Gates, British Council, Newton) and is an accomplished coordinator of large, international research project, pioneering use of Smart Data streams (mass retail data, telco logs, mobility data) to reveal key behaviours/drivers underpinning Health, Environmental and Sustainability UN SDG targets.
(University of Nottingham)
Dr. Roberto Mansilla is an Assistant Professor in the Marketing, Tourism, and Analytics Department at the University of Nottingham and is affiliated with the Centre of Excellence in International Analytics (N/LAB). His research focuses on the intersection of data science, consumer behavior, and health. Dr. Mansilla’s areas of expertise include Behavioural Analytics, Digital Marketing, Machine Learning, Marketing Analytics, and Consumer Behaviour. He leverages extensive transactional data to analyze longitudinal changes in dietary patterns and nutrient consumption. His work also explores emerging variable importance methodologies, such as model class reliance, to understand the determinants of consumer purchasing behavior. With a Professional Degree in Industrial Engineering, an MSc in Business Analytics, and a PhD in Behavioural Analytics, Dr. Mansilla brings a multidisciplinary approach to his research. His doctoral research utilized consumer loyalty card data, advanced analytics, and machine learning to gain insights into systematic and health trajectories.
(Cardiff University)
Shujun Liu is a Research Associate at the School of Social Sciences within the Centre for Development, Evaluation, Complexity, and Implementation in Public Health Improvement (DECIPHer). Her research explores the intersection of political communication, children and technology, and research methodology. She employs a diverse range of quantitative methods, including surveys, content analysis, online experiments, and computational approaches such as supervised and unsupervised machine learning.