Police Scotland and the Scottish Police Authority are joining forces with four Scottish universities to turn academic evidence into practical policing policy. The new Policing Academic Centre of Excellence (SPACE) will focus on three areas: improving personal safety for officers and the public, preventing crime through public-health approaches, and using data analytics to solve complex problems. The centre builds on 17 years of partnership work through the Scottish Institute for Policing Research, but now formalises and expands that collaboration. This matters because policing faces rapid technological change and shifting societal challenges—from cybercrime to public trust—that require evidence-based responses rather than intuition alone. If successful, SPACE could reshape how police handle everything from officer wellbeing to crime prevention strategies, embedding ethics and public confidence at the centre of operational decisions. The research will also feed into national priorities set by the National Police Chiefs Council, potentially influencing policing across the UK. The centre is not developing new technology itself but will synthesise existing evidence, identify knowledge gaps, and commission new research to fill them.
View original technical description
Context & challenge: The Scottish Policing Academic Centre of Excellence (SPACE) brings together interdisciplinary academic expertise in three key substantive themes: Safety, Prevention, and Analytics; underpinned by professional capability in public Confidence and Ethics. These strengths are timely and crucial to UK policing given the societal challenges and technological advances that are increasingly shaping the policing landscape and require evidence-based innovative approaches. Aims and objectives: SPACE aims to strengthen and enhance policing policy and practice by harnessing high-quality academic evidence and innovating new approaches. In line with the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) Areas of Research Interest (ARIs), it will focus on improving Personal Safety, building Prevention and maximising use of Analytics in a manner that inspires Confidence and meets high Ethical standards. SPACE will build on the ground-breaking Scottish Institute for Policing Research (SIPR) model of police-academic partnership, bringing 17 years of expertise in supporting research and knowledge exchange in a multi-disciplinary collaboration between Scottish Universities, Police Scotland, and the Scottish Police Authority. Our objectives will be to: Synthesise and critique the current evidence in key priority areas relating to Safety, Prevention and Analytics. Identify ‘knowledge gaps’ and bring together world-leading experts to address current and future policing needs. Innovate in developing new challenge-led research that will advance knowledge and expertise within policing. Contribute to building public confidence and demonstrating strong ethical approaches in policing policy and practice. Exchange knowledge with the relevant police organisations, partners, other P-ACE networks and the public. Core team and roles: Delivered by four Universities with internationally-leading research on policing, SPACE is led by Professor Liz Aston (SIPR Director) at Edinburgh Napier University (ENU) with Monica Craig as Centre Manager. Professor Aston will manage the programme of work, ensuring that Confidence (building and maintaining public trust) and Ethics (delivering innovation that is proportionate, fair, ethical, legal, and supported by the public) underpin and shape all activities, outputs and impacts. Leading each theme and its strategic development of evidence and innovation, are: Safety - Dr Andrew Wooff (ENU, SIPR) Prevention - Dr Sarah Marsden (St Andrews) and Professor Lesley McMillan (Glasgow Caledonian University, SIPR) Analytics - Professor Susan McVie (University of Edinburgh) SPACE will involve interdisciplinary collaboration with academics in health, psychology, law and ethics, data science and computing, technology and AI, business, and mathematics. Each theme will bring together academics, policing practitioners, policy makers, non-governmental organisations, those working in allied fields (e.g. health) and the public to build the evidence base, foster ethical innovation, and generate evidence-based policy and practice that builds confidence. Research gaps will be filled by the SPACE Universities and or by tendering out through SIPR to include wider expertise. Benefits and impacts: SPACE represents a critical mass of expertise with the capability to generate impactful solutions in three key areas of policing. Our work on Safety will improve personal wellbeing of police professionals, which is crucial to operational productivity and maintaining public safety. Our public-health approaches to Prevention will support reductions in crime and harm, improving outcomes for officers and the public. Our capacity to leverage data, analytics and technological solutions will drive innovative analysis to solve complex, multi-faceted problems. Building on SIPR’s existing model of collaboration and cooperation, we can mobilise expertise in issues of public confidence and ethics to ensure our work has maximum impact.
Plain English summaries and category classifications on this site are generated by AI and may not perfectly reflect the original research.
Is something wrong? Let us know