Policing Academic Centre of Excellence

Our proposed Policing Academic Centre of Excellence (P-ACE) brings together multi-disciplinary expertise from across the University to provide a fast-track, two-way knowledge mobilisation platform between police and academia. Specifically, with P-ACE funding, we will bring together University of Bath's leading scientists across psychology, management, digital security and behaviour, health, criminology, mechanical engineering, and computer science to collaborate with a diversity of policing partners, both existing and new, in an innovative way to address policing challenges. We have substantial expertise across the selected ARI, with particular strengths in responding to the climate crisis, public perceptions and trust, crime prevention and safety in both online and offline spaces, workforce wellbeing, vulnerable interviewing, surveillance, data and analytics. We plan to unite, formalise, and build upon this expertise so we can provide an excellent and agile response to identified policing needs, via the dissemination of existing or creation of new collaborative research and knowledge exchange projects. Our aims are: To develop our existing expertise into operationally useful tools and training while also cultivating a dynamic network of our academic and policing partners to develop a shared vision between academia and policing. To identify and facilitate placement opportunities between police and academia to support professional development and an embedded culture of two-way KE between our academic and policing communities. With careful deployment of the flexible fund, we will ensure the co-creation of new research that responds to the needs of modern policing. Ultimately, our goal is to establish ourselves as a world-leading centre of academic excellence for policing, working alongside the other P-ACEs to unite our diverse research expertise, whilst also collaborating with both existing and new policing networks to ultimately develop, deliver and translate a robust evidence base across the ARI. With specialised KE support from our appointed KE facilitator and oversight from our advisory group, we will ensure that our objectives are realised and that our world-leading research at Bath is synthesised and shared with relevant policing partners. We will employ a KE facilitator who has prior expertise in presenting research to practitioners and policy makers, ensuring that the initial months of the P-ACE have parallel processes of a) translating our existing knowledge and expertise into practice while b) beginning the conversations about the longer-term research programme. We have an expanse of existing resources at Bath, in the form of institutes and centres, KE and policy specialists, and dedicated Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP), consultancy and research support teams, which we will leverage to ensure our objectives are met. The vision and values of our proposed P-ACE align with those of the University of Bath more broadly, notably in delivering excellence and working in partnership, supporting a sustainable community, and fostering inclusion, equality and diversity. Indeed, a core aim of the University is to develop centres of expertise in collaboration with partners to address national needs. Thus, given our expertise, networks, vision and values, the University of Bath is ideally placed to host a Policing Academic Centre of Excellence.