Personal profile
Biography
Mark Elliot has been central to the field of confidentiality and privacy since 1996. He is one of the key international researchers in the field of Statistical Disclosure and collaborates widely with non-academic partners, particularly with national statistical agencies where he has been a key influence on disclosure control methodology used in censuses and surveys and where the SUDA software that he developed in collaboration with colleagues in Computer Science at Manchester is used. Mark stands out for his interdisciplinary breadth with publications in stats, computer science law and social science journals.
Since 2012, he has led the UK Anonymisation Network (www.ukanon.net), which has 600 members and provides advice, consultancy and training on anonymisation and works closely with the UKs information commissioner’s office. Since 2023 he has led SPRITE+ (https://spritehub.org/) a cross sector community which runs events and funds research on all elements of TIPS (Trust, Identity, Privacy and Security).
Aside from Privacy his research interests also include AI and Society and substantive social science topics under the broad heading of Psychological Sociology (including studies of fathering, personal relationships and social and political attitudes).
Research interests
- Confidentiality, Privacy and Anonymisation
- Synthetic data
- AI and Society
- Fathering
- Environmental Attitudes
Opportunities
I am currently seeking students to work on a variety of projects under the heading of
- AI and Social Science
- Synthetic Data Production
Please do contact me if you have an interest in that area.
Further information
PhD Supervision:
Current Students:
- Oliver Beatson
- Ana Maria Nicoriciu
- Nastazja Laskowski
- Bahrul Nasution
- Wei Zhuang
Current teaching:
Programme
MSc Data Science - programe lead
Modules
Understanding Data and their Environemnt (DATA70001); module lead
Extended Research Project DATA72000; module lead
Education/Academic qualification
Doctor of Philosophy, Artifical Intelligence, University of Nottingham
Award Date: 30 Jun 1995
Master in Science, Knowledge Based Systems, University of Sussex
Award Date: 31 Oct 1984
Bachelor of Science, Psychology, The University of Warwick
Award Date: 30 Jun 1983
Areas of expertise
- H Social Sciences (General)
- Psychological Sociology
- Q Science (General)
- AI
- Data Science
Research Beacons, Institutes and Platforms
- Institute for Data Science and AI
- Sustainable Futures
- Digital Futures
- Christabel Pankhurst Institute
- Cathie Marsh Institute
Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals
In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):
-
SDG 1 No Poverty -
SDG 3 Good Health and Well-being -
SDG 4 Quality Education -
SDG 5 Gender Equality -
SDG 7 Affordable and Clean Energy -
SDG 8 Decent Work and Economic Growth -
SDG 10 Reduced Inequalities -
SDG 11 Sustainable Cities and Communities -
SDG 12 Responsible Consumption and Production -
SDG 13 Climate Action -
SDG 15 Life on Land -
SDG 16 Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions -
SDG 17 Partnerships for the Goals
Fingerprint
- 1 Similar Profiles
Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years
-
Bayesian Generative Adversarial Networks via Gaussian Approximation for Tabular Data Synthesis
Nasution, B., Elliot, M. & Allmendinger, R., 24 Feb 2026, (Accepted/In press) In: Transactions on Data Privacy.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
-
Flow Matching for Tabular Data Synthesis
Nasution, B. I., Eijkelboom, F., Elliot, M., Allmendinger, R. & Naesseth, C. A., 5 Mar 2026, (Accepted/In press) In: Transactions on Machine Learning Research .Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
-
Beyond Standard Metrics: Assessing NLP for Anonymisation of Clinical Trial Narratives
Graff, N., Nenadic, G., Elliot, M. & Hughes, A. M., 20 Oct 2025, UNECE Expert Meeting on Statistical Data Confidentiality: Expert Meeting on Statistical Data Confidentiality .Research output: Chapter in Book/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › peer-review
Open Access -
Material deprivation in the UK: beyond the binary
Nicoriciu, A. M. & Elliot, M., 6 Aug 2025, (Accepted/In press) In: International Journal of Population Data Science.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
-
PRODUCING SYNTHETIC TEACHING DATASETS USING EVOLUTIONARY ALGORITHMS
Little, C., Elliot, M. & Allmendinger, R., 17 Oct 2025, UNECE Expert Meeting on Statistical Data Confidentiality: Expert meeting on Statistical Data Confidentiality.Research output: Chapter in Book/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › peer-review
Open Access
-
SALIENT: Building a secure and resilient world
Kirkham, R. (PI), Clarke, S. (CoI), Elliot, M. (CoI), Evans, J. (CoI), Shaw, D. (CoI), Smith, C. (CoI) & Zhang, H. (Support team)
1/02/24 → 31/01/29
Project: Research
-
-
Centre for Digital Trust and Society
Barrett, E. (PI), Allmendinger, R. (Researcher), Elliot, M. (Researcher), Lord, N. (Researcher), Cordeiro, L. (Researcher), Gibson, R. (Researcher), Papamarkou, T. (Researcher), Dresner, D. (Researcher), Aldridge, J. (Researcher), Duncan, P. (Researcher), Banach, R. (Researcher), Brown, G. (Researcher), Dennis, L. (Researcher), Fisher, M. (Researcher), Korovin, K. (Researcher), Kotselidis, C.-E. (Researcher), Luján, M. (Researcher), Mustafa, M. (Researcher), Olivier, P. (Researcher), Reger, G. (Researcher), Zhang, N. (Researcher), Hodgkinson, G. (Researcher), Gulati, S. (Researcher), Ainsworth, J. (Researcher), Chen, Y.-W. (Researcher), Green, B. (Researcher), Healey, M. (Researcher), Uyarra, E. (Researcher), Zachariadis, M. (Researcher), Little, C. (Researcher), Mackey, E. (Researcher), Nenadic, G. (Researcher), Keane, J. (Researcher), Shlomo, N. (Researcher), Graff, N. (Researcher), Jarwar, M. A. (Researcher), Shariati Samani, S. (Researcher), Smith, D. (Researcher), Kambites, M. (Researcher), Thorpe, M. (Researcher), Rowley, P. (Researcher), Flynn, S. (Researcher), Turner, P. (Researcher), Wainwright, V. (Researcher), Czerwinsky, A. (PGR student), Nini, A. (Researcher), Broad, R. (Researcher), Shute, J. (Researcher), Deakin, J. (Researcher), Saldana-Taboada, P. (PGR student), Knight, P. (Researcher), Hutchings, S. (Researcher), Whyte, J. (Researcher), Tolz-Zilitinkevic, V. (Researcher), Pilkington, H. (Researcher), Guharoy, S. (Researcher), Nicolo, A. (Researcher), Reggiani, C. (Researcher), Garcia Oliva, J. (Researcher), Van Someren, A. (Researcher), Bon, E. (Researcher), Cantijoch Cunill, M. (Researcher), Koch, D. (Researcher) & Chen, Y.-W. (Researcher)
11/05/21 → …
Project: Other
-
RAI: Centre for Robotics and Artificial Intelligence
Cangelosi, A. (PI), Lennox, B. (PI), Weightman, A. (CoI), Dennis, L. (CoI), Dixon, C. (CoI), Fisher, M. (CoI), Herrmann, G. (CoI), Dickson, A. (CoI), Lanzon, A. (CoI), Stancu, A. (CoI), Miller, A. (CoI), Freitas, A. (CoI), Nini, A. (CoI), Voronkov, A. (CoI), Brass, A. (CoI), Vijayaraghavan, A. (CoI), Parslew, B. (CoI), crowther, W. (CoI), Grieve, B. (CoI), Adorno, B. (CoI), Jay, C. (CoI), Wang, C. C. L. (CoI), Todd, C. (CoI), Soutis, C. (CoI), Arsene, C. (CoI), Dresner, D. (CoI), Barrett, E. (CoI), Gowen, E. (CoI), Arvin, F. (CoI), Podd, F. (CoI), Brown, G. (CoI), Reger, G. (CoI), Cooper, G. (CoI), Mairs, H. (CoI), Yin, H. (CoI), Kinloch, I. (CoI), Eleftheriou, I. (CoI), Li, J. (CoI), Carrasco Gomez, J. (CoI), Ainsworth, J. (CoI), Sinha, J. (CoI), Ozanyan, K. (CoI), Smith, K. (CoI), Twomey, K. (CoI), Margetts, L. (CoI), Ren, L. (CoI), Zhang, L. (CoI), Cordeiro, L. (CoI), Rattray, M. (PI), Bissett, M. (CoI), Elliot, M. (CoI), Alvarez, M. (CoI), Luján, M. (CoI), Nabawy BSc, MSc, PhD, MRAeS, SMAIAA, FHEA, M. (CoI), Peek, N. (CoI), Marjanovic, O. (CoI), Dorn, O. (CoI), Dudek, P. (CoI), Green, P. (CoI), Connolly, P. (CoI), Da Silva Bartolo, P. J. (CoI), Gardner, P. (CoI), Martin, P. (CoI), Potluri, P. (CoI), Curtis, R. (CoI), Schmidt, R. (CoI), Banach, R. (CoI), Batista-Navarro, R. T. (CoI), Kaski, S. (CoI), Midson, S. (CoI), Watson, S. (CoI), Holm, S. (CoI), Furber, S. (CoI), Schlegel, V. (CoI), Mirihanage, W. (CoI), Mansell, W. (CoI), Pan, W. (CoI), Sampson, B. (CoI), Sellers, W. (CoI), Yang, W. (CoI), Cai, P. (CoI), Sun, Y. (CoI), Alharthi, A. (Researcher), Macario Rojas, A. (Researcher), Serhan, B. (Researcher), Yu, C. (Researcher), Abara, D. (Researcher), Lopez Pulgarin, E. (Researcher), Faruq, F. (Researcher), Tavella, F. (Researcher), Semeraro, F. (Researcher), Liu, G. (Researcher), Fang, G. (Researcher), Niu, H. (Researcher), Taylor, H. (PI), Zhu, H. (PGR student), Collenette, J. (Researcher), Amano, K. (Researcher), Lo, K. C. J. (PGR student), Raggioli, L. (Researcher), Romeo, M. (Researcher), Ruocco, M. (PGR student), Ghaffari Saadat, M. (Researcher), Walmsley, M. (Researcher), Mubarik, A. (Researcher), Vinanzi, S. (Researcher), Su, Y.-H. (PGR student), McAleese, H. (PGR student), Stringer, P. (PGR student), Stoican, R. (PGR student), Ye, R. (PGR student), Kurawa, S. S. (PGR student), Zhang, T. (PGR student), Krywonos, W. (PGR student), Xu, Y. (PGR student), Tian, Y. (PGR student), Henderson, A. (Technical team), Morley, D. (Support team), Tallentire, J. (Support team), Smith, J. (Support team), Hawthornthwaite, S. (Support team), Carlson, J. (Support team) & Baniqued, P. D. (Researcher)
Project: Research
-
Enhancing Data Accessibility and Security through Innovative Data Synthesis (EDASIDA)
Elliot, M. (PI) & Allmendinger, R. (CoI)
1/04/24 → 31/03/25
Project: Research
-
‘The Anonymisation Decision Making Framework’
Elliot, M. (Speaker)
23 Jan 2020Activity: Talk or presentation › Invited talk › Research
-
Data Situation Audit of proposed processing and onward dissemination of clinical data from NHS Cancer patients by Flatiron UK
Elliot, M. (Academic founder) & Mackey, E. (Consultant)
1 Dec 2019 → 31 Aug 2020Activity: Consultancy, spin-outs, CPD & licensing › Consultancy & Services › Research
-
The trade-off between Information Utility and Disclosure Risk
Elliot, M. (Speaker)
Dec 2019Activity: Talk or presentation › Invited talk › Research
File -
‘The trade-off between Information Utility and Disclosure Risk in GA Synthetic Data Gen-erator.’
Elliot, M. (Speaker)
Oct 2019Activity: Talk or presentation › Oral presentation › Research
-
The Synthetic Data Challenge.
Elliot, M. (Speaker) & Taub, J. (Speaker)
Oct 2019Activity: Talk or presentation › Oral presentation › Research
Impacts
-
Ensuring more effective and safer data sharing practices through the Anonymisation Decision Making Framework
Elliot, M. (Participant) & Mackey, E. (Participant)
Impact: Economic impacts, Societal impacts
-
Impact on the Statistical Confidentiality Practices of Data Stewardship Organisations
Elliot, M. (Participant), Purdam, K. (Participant), Mackey, E. (Participant), Smith, D. (Participant) & Lomax, S. (Participant)
Impact: Economic impacts, Societal impacts, Legal impacts
-
Datasets
-
"Why call it equality?" revisited: An extended critique of the EIGE Gender Equality Index – Supplementary material
Schmid, C. (Creator) & Elliot, M. (Creator), University of Manchester Figshare, 6 Dec 2022
DOI: 10.48420/21642071, https://figshare.manchester.ac.uk/articles/dataset/_Why_call_it_equality_revisited_An_extended_critique_of_the_EIGE_Gender_Equality_Index_Supplementary_material/21642071/1
Dataset
Press/Media
-
Climate change: what do we think, and what are we doing?
Liu, T., Shryane, N. & Elliot, M.
17/11/22
1 item of Media coverage
Press/Media: Blogs and social media
-
BBC NEWS ONLINE: Tim Cook blasts 'weaponisation' of personal data and praises GDPR
24/10/18
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Expert comment