Police officers across the UK will get direct access to academic expertise through a new centre that turns research on crime prevention, analytics, and public trust into practical tools they can use on the job. The Manchester Policing Academic Centre of Excellence (M-PACE) addresses a persistent gap: police forces face complex challenges—from rising cybercrime to maintaining public confidence—but often lack the time or resources to sift through academic evidence for solutions. The centre brings together social scientists and data specialists from two universities to co-produce research directly with police partners, rather than publishing findings that sit unused in journals. If successful, M-PACE will change how policing decisions are made. Instead of relying on instinct or precedent, officers could draw on synthesised evidence about what actually works for crime prevention, how to deploy analytics ethically, and which strategies build legitimacy with communities. The centre will also train early-career researchers and police practitioners, creating a pipeline of people who can bridge the gap between academic knowledge and frontline practice. This is applied, partnership-driven research—not fundamental science—designed to make the UK’s policing system more effective and evidence-led.
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Policing in the UK is confronted by a set of enduring and emergent challenges. The effectiveness, efficiency, and legitimacy of policing in meeting these challenges can be enhanced through its proactive engagement with the academic community. The Manchester Policing Academic Centre of Excellence (M-PACE) is a collaboration of academics from Manchester Metropolitan University and the University of Manchester. M-PACE comprises a team of world-leading scientists and social scientists with an extensive track record of, and an on-going commitment to, meeting the research and innovation needs of policing in the UK. M-PACE has been established to address the following Policing Areas of Research Interest, as identified by the National Police Chief’s Council (NPCC): ENDURING CHALLENGES; CRIME PREVENTION; ANALYTICS; and INTERCONNECTIVITY. The capability and capacity of M-PACE to meet these needs is demonstrated through its extensive portfolio of relevant research, training and knowledge-mobilisation activities. The leadership team of M-PACE will act as conduits to the research groups within each institution that reflect the broader disciplinary and methodological strengths of M-PACE. M-PACE aims, via a set of co-production activities, to support its policing partners in appreciating, developing and mobilising the evidence and tools to successfully meet the challenges that they face. To achieve this ambition, M-PACE has set the following objectives: (1) to synthesise and disseminate existing evidence and tools; (2) to establish a set of activities generating new evidence and tools tailored to the specific challenges faced by policing in the UK; (3) to build the capability and capacity of the police to uptake the evidence and tools generated by M-PACE; and, (4) to build the capability and capacity of the next generation of policing researchers and practitioners. To achieve these objectives, M-PACE will fund and organise showcase events, agile evidence reviews, policing fellowships, internships, professional development workshops, collaborative working groups, and develop pathways to impact. The type and design of each activity will be co-produced by M-PACE and policing partners, recognising this approach to deliver more rigorous research and to heighten the likelihood of knowledge being mobilised. The impact of these activities will be enhanced through the partnership of M-PACE with the N8 Policing Research Partnership, SPRITE+, and the UK Data Service. These partnerships will underpin an extensive range of knowledge mobilisation activities. Across all activities developed by M-PACE, early career researchers and postgraduate students will be actively engaged to enhance their expertise and experience in working with policing partners. In so-doing, M-PACE will ensure the sustainability of its activities, of successful academic and policing collaborations.
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