We are delighted to have been named as one of the nine Policing Academic Centres of Excellence (P-ACEs) in the UK by UKRI, with £4.5 million in funding coming from the National Police Chiefs’ Council.
The UCL P-ACE will be led by Prof Ben Bradford, Director of the UCL Centre for Global City Policing and Dr Aiden Sidebottom, Associate Professor.
Working closely with police forces, the P-ACEs will drive collaboration among academia and policing after they launch in October 2025. These will ensure that policing is shaped by the latest and best scientific expertise and led by the UK’s leading researchers.
As a global leader in police-relevant research, the UCL P-ACE will focus on five areas of research interest: Building and maintaining public trust, Crime prevention, Identification and tracing, Surveillance and sensing and Analytics.
Working across these five domains, the UCL P-ACE will identify and facilitate the dissemination and use of existing research to help improve policing and support the development of new research and technology with and for the police.
Our established partner organisations, such as the London Metropolitan Police Service and the London Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC), will assist us in identifying key areas of interest and need across both streams of work.
Reflecting on the announcement, Prof Ben Bradford, Director of the UCL Centre for Global City Policing, said:
'We are delighted that UCL has been named as a Policing Academic Centre of Excellence. This award recognises the breadth and depth of the research and engagement activity conducted within the Department for Security and Crime Science, specifically, and more widely the strength of UCL as a global centre of policing research.
We are looking forward to working with UKRI, the other P-ACEs and police partners on projects that promote effective, ethical policing strategies that command public trust and make people and communities safer'.
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