The N8 Policing Research Partnership (PRP) is celebrating a milestone year of growth as it reaches the mid-way point in its current five-year funding programme.
The N8 PRP has published its third annual report which covers the HEFCE (now Office for Students) Catalyst Grant from May 2017 to May 2018.
The report highlights N8 PRP’s most notable achievements over the last 12 months, which have enabled the programme to mature beyond its early aspirations and start to reap the rewards of its first two years of work.
It also outlines N8 PRP’s plans for the future, looking beyond its current Catalyst Grant programme, which will end in 2020, and plans its next phase of development through Vision 2025.
The N8 PRP has delivered several key events over the last year, such as the 2018 Policing Innovation Forum (PIF), which brought together key academics, police and stakeholders to discuss contemporary challenges, most recently in policing mental health.
In November 2017, the programme launched its third round of Research and Co-Production Small Grants Awards. Five research projects were awarded up to £25,000 of seed-corn funding for research projects on Early Intervention Policing Domestic Abuse.
On a range of fronts, the N8 PRP is now having a real impact on the ways in which policing partners and researchers engage with each other, generate new research knowledge and providing training opportunities. It has been a catalyst in fostering different thinking, new practices and culture change, with many partner forces now dedicating new processes and infrastructure to coordinating research evidence within strategies.
Professor Adam Crawford, N8 PRP director, said: “The ultimate aim of the Catalyst Grant has always been to build a robust and sustainable infrastructure – with multiple points of engagement, contacts and partnerships around which policing practitioners and researchers can come together in mutual curiosity. Working with our partners, we have a collective purpose of fostering innovation, knowledge generation and change in policing with beneficial outcomes for communities, victims and the public.
“The N8 PRP is celebrating another milestone year in its development, as we mark reaching the half-way point of our Catalyst Grant programme. We now feel that the time is right to start to turn some of our attention and energies to developing a business plan and scoping out opportunities for our Vision 2025. Our steering group has already started to discuss options, priorities and focus and these will be refined over the coming year and ensure that we’re prepared for the next chapter in N8 PRP’s journey.”
The N8 PRP, part of the N8 Research Partnership, enables and foster research collaborations between universities, Police and Crime Commissioners, Government, police forces and other partners working in policing policy, governance and practice.