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Equitable Technology Laboratory
Placing equity at the heart of innovation
The Equitable Technology Laboratory (ETL) will deliver a reimagined process of innovation that embeds equity in technology development.
Conventional innovation processes fail to engage with the social and political context within which technologies are used and produced. As a result, technologies frequently fail to meet intended needs, reinforce social and economic marginalisation and leave societal priorities unresolved.
The ETL will facilitate collaborations between academia, civil society and public, private and third-sector organisations to deliver solutions that respond to societal need, are appropriate for the context of use, and actively contribute to transforming drivers of inequality.
Project highlights
The transdisciplinary approach of the ETL will not only deliver impact through equitable, socio-technical solutions, it will also establish a new field of applied academic research.
Professor Jonathan Ensor
News and publications
Find out more about recent developments by reading our latest stories and recent publications.
Work with us
The ETL supports scientists and engineers to conduct research that better addresses societal challenges and enables equitable benefits to flow from the application of their technology.
Professor Steven Johnson
Research themes
You can read more about the research themes in ETL’s Equitable technology framework (PDF , 786kb).
YorkTalks 2025
Watch ETL co-lead Jonathan Ensor presenting an overview of our approach to equitable technology at the University of York’s 2025 YorkTalks event.
This talk summarises ETL’s approach as one that is simultaneously social and technical, and foregrounds the knowledge and experience of end users in technology development. Two examples illustrate how this can lead to technologies that provide benefits to otherwise marginalised groups and are able to help transform underlying drivers of inequality.
People
Our team draws together researchers from many different disciplines across the University.
Our expertise is wide-ranging and continuously evolves as new team members join us.
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