Our current areas of focus for the Regulatory Sandbox
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Due to the Data (Use and Access) Act coming into law on 19 June 2025, this guidance is under review and may be subject to change. The Plans for new and updated guidance page will tell you about which guidance will be updated and when this will happen.
Our current key areas of focus:
Emerging technologies including:
- Central bank digital currencies (CBDCs)
- Commercial use of drones
- Consumer healthtech
- Decentralised finance
- Genomics
- Immersive technology and virtual worlds
- Neurotechnologies
- Next-generation Internet of Things (IoT)
- Next-generation search
- Personalised AI
- Quantum computing
If your innovation does not involve one of the above emerging technologies, then you should consider applying to the Sandbox in relation to:
Emerging technologies
Emerging technologies advertise significant opportunities to make our lives easier, safer, more comfortable, efficient and fun. They also present a range of risks that may harm people’s privacy and their trust in these technologies, if they are not addressed as the technology develops.
The ICO’s Regulatory Sandbox aims to support the innovation of organisations working with emerging technologies, and to help them prevent such harms to people’s privacy. The lessons learned in the Sandbox can support the ICO’s commitment to developing views on emerging technologies that will ultimately help to reduce the burden on businesses.
The Regulatory Sandbox’s key areas of focus are the following emerging technologies:
- Central bank digital currencies (CBDCs): A new form of central bank-issued digital money, which would complement physical cash and other payment mechanisms in facilitating everyday payment needs. You can read a detailed description of CBDCs in the ICO’s Technology Horizons report.
- Commercial use of drones: The use of drones or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in commercial settings, for example in delivery and e-commerce, monitoring, and crowd control. You can read a detailed description of the use drones in the ICO’s Technology Horizons report.
- Consumer healthtech: Wearable devices and software applications that help people assess their health and wellbeing (includes smart fabrics). You can read a detailed description of consumer healthtech in the ICO’s Technology Horizons report.
- Decentralised finance: Software that employs blockchain technology to support peer-to-peer financial transactions. You can read a detailed description of decentralised finance in the ICO’s Technology Horizons report.
- Genomics: The sequencing of the human genome to improve understanding of a broad range of traits, mostly used in healthcare. There is further potential for these insights to be used in fields such as employment, sports and education. You can read a detailed description of genomics in the ICO’s Technology Horizons report.
- Immersive technology and virtual worlds: Augmented and virtual reality hardware that creates immersive software experiences for users. These software experiences can include highly immersive virtual environments, also known as the metaverse, in which users can interact with each other and make use of digital services, such as e-commerce and gaming. You can read a detailed description of Immersive technology and virtual worlds in the ICO’s Technology Horizons report.
- Neurotechnologies: Consumer, enterprise and healthcare devices and procedures, both invasive and non-invasive, that directly record and process neuro-data to gather information, control interfaces or devices, or modulate neural activity. You can read a detailed description of neurotechnologies in the ICO’s Technology Horizons report.
- Next-generation Internet of Things (IoT): physical objects that connect and share information over the internet, with the ability to sense, respond to or interact with the external environment. You can read a detailed description of these technologies in the ICO’s Technology Horizons report.
- Next-generation search: Next-generation search engines incorporating new technologies, such as embedded AI capabilities, as well as voice-based, image-based and ambient elements. You can read a detailed description of next-generation search in the ICO’s Technology Horizons report.
- Personalised AI: The customisation of large language models, based on individual users’ search patterns, personal preferences and characteristics, to create more tailored user experiences and better-targeted outputs. You can read a detailed description of personalised AI in the ICO’s Technology Horizons report.
- Quantum computing: By taking advantage of phenomena at the atomic scale, quantum computing may in future be able to resolve highly complex computational problems that current computers cannot, but may also present serious risks to existing encryption. You can read a detailed description of quantum computing in the ICO’s Technology Horizons report.
We are interested in working with innovative projects involving the above emerging technologies within any sector.
Exceptional innovations
We also welcome innovations that do not use the above emerging technologies but display an exceptional level of innovation. For example, a data processing activity that is not yet established in any industry or a novel use of an existing innovative technology. There should be qualitative and quantitative evidence that the innovation is likely to be transformative.