Research Coordination Network (RCN)

The Future of Privacy Forum (FPF) with the support of the National Science Foundation’s Research Coordination Network, engages with academic professionals to bring state-of-the-art research to industry privacy practitioners. Through this program, FPF strives to facilitate research collaborations and coordination by providing a high-profile platform for academic researchers to connect with corporate privacy leaders.

At a time when industry actors are the custodians of a wide range of consumer data, bringing together corporate and academic constituents is critical to making practical privacy progress. FPF has hosted webinars, conferences, and working group meetings to give academics a platform to present their research. Academic articles are also shared through summaries of privacy scholarship. 

Women Talking at RCN Meeting
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Webinars

FPF utilizes a virtual format to reach a larger audience. This was especially important in 2020-2021. FPF has four webinars planned for the fall of 2021

Read more about previous RCN Webinars.

Conferences

Prior to 2020, FPF hosted several in-person conferences. These conferences were an excellent opportunity for in-depth conversations between academics and industry professionals. 

One of these conferences is the annual Privacy Papers for Policymakers (PPPM) which highlights leading privacy research and analytical work from the previous year relevant to policymakers in the U.S. Congress and U.S. federal agencies, industry participants, and others. 

Learn more about previously submitted PPPM papers.

Several conferences in 2020 changed to a virtual format in response to COVID-19. Read more about previous conferences.

Working Group Meetings

FPF working groups bring together industry, academics, consumer advocates, and other thought leaders to explore the challenges posed by technological innovation and develop privacy protections, ethical norms, and workable business practices within specific issue areas such as artificial intelligence, youth and education, smart communities, health, and legislation.

Several times each year, FPF working groups invite researchers to present the latest research on relevant topics. Information on previous working group speakers can be found here:

Privacy Scholarship Research Reporter

Keeping track of the growing wealth of privacy research presents challenges for industry privacy experts. The FPF Privacy Scholarship Research Reporter provides a snapshot of research articles on a pressing privacy issue.