Lancaster Policing Academic Centre of Excellence (L-PACE) will create a step-change in the ability of Lancaster’s social and behavioural sciences to have a practical and operational impact on policing Areas of Research Interests (ARI). The aims of L-PACE include: increasing the number and range of academics involved in police ARI projects; fostering new relationships between academics and police forces; providing practical solutions to current policing problems; sparking new ideas that can be built into more substantial projects; and tackling the policing skills and recruitment gap by creating a pathway for students considering a career in data related policing.

The Scottish Policing Academic Centre of Excellence (SPACE) brings together interdisciplinary academic expertise in three key themes: safety, prevention, and analytics; underpinned by capability in public confidence and ethics. SPACE builds on the Scottish Institute for Policing Research (SIPR) model, bringing 17 years of expertise in supporting research and knowledge exchange in a multi-disciplinary collaboration between universities and policing partners. SPACE aims to enhance policing policy and practice by harnessing high-quality academic evidence and innovating new approaches, focusing on improving personal safety, building prevention and maximising use of analytics in a manner that inspires confidence and meets high ethical standards.

M-PACE aims to support its policing partners in appreciating, developing and mobilising evidence and tools to successfully meet the challenges that they face. Via a set of co-produced knowledge mobilisation activities M-PACE will synthesise and disseminate existing evidence and tools to build the capability and capacity of the next generation of policing researchers and practitioners. With a long-standing and depth of leadership in evidence-based policing research and practice, M-PACE comprises a team of world-leading scientists and social scientists demonstrating an extensive track record of, and an on-going commitment to, meeting the research and innovation needs of policing in the UK. Through robust evaluation, innovative tools, and multi-agency collaboration, we offer a forward-facing, impact-driven approach to shaping a future-proof, accountable, and ethical policing landscape.

The University of Bath P-ACE brings together multi-disciplinary expertise to provide a fast-track, two-way knowledge mobilisation platform between police and academia. It will collaborate with a diversity of policing partners, both existing and new, in an innovative way to address policing challenges and provide an excellent and agile response to identified policing needs. Working collaboratively with policing, the University of Bath P-ACE will develop operationally useful tools and training and ensure the co-creation of new research and knowledge exchange projects that respond to the needs of modern policing.

The University of Portsmouth Policing Academic Centre of Excellence (UoP P-ACE) is focused upon enhancing its academic-policing partnerships through knowledge mobilisation, undertaking and embedding pioneering research and driving ongoing research capacity and the development of police science literacy. The UoP P-ACE will create and consolidate evidence that directly addresses the strategic needs of policing, advance collaborative engagement with stakeholders by summarising and making accessible new and existing research evidence, and build research capacity and focus on the long-term educational development of policing professionals.