ID140 The Future of KPAC (Keele Police-Academic Collaboration)

The Idea

Keele Policing-Academic Collaboration was instituted in 2015 as the joint initiative of academic staff from the Criminology and Psychology programmes with a view to acting as a research institute for 'Knowledge co-production - the idea of academics, policing partners and stakeholders working together to shape priorities and activities - combining practical expertise, academic knowledge and stakeholder perspectives across a broad range of issues to address the full range of challenges faced by modern policing'. It was administered from the School of Psychology but had joint directors from Criminology and Psychology, encouraging active participation from both disciplines and beyond.  

Building on these foundations, we propose to create a contemporary iteration of KPAC which will broaden the scope of its activities to address the wide-ranging, multi-agency meaning and remit of policing across several sites and agencies. Briefly, ‘policing’ remains the core purpose of our Police constabularies, but policing-related responsibilities are also part of statutory obligations and mandates for bodies involved in prevention, public safety, emergency/response, community crime and safety and so forth. 

Research activities and collaborative partnerships under the aegis of ‘policing’ includes stakeholders such as emergency (or ‘Blue Light’) response services including Fire Services, Ambulance, civil defence and emergency co-ordination; as well as the ‘uniformed services’ including prison and custody providers, and the statutory criminal justice services (courts, probation, parole services). Additionally, these responsibilities are relevant to sections of the health services (mental health, substance misuse supports); prevention and early intervention services (radicalisation and anti-trafficking/unlawful exploitation); and local authorities and civil society tasked with community cohesion, crime and community safety mandates.

Why This Idea Should Be Considered

A research centre/body needs to evolve to adapt to new realities and to embrace new areas of excellence. KPAC (if that name was retained) would be cross-disciplinary to optimise the range of research expertise across schools and potentially, across Faculties: There is an important place for the more 'traditional' association with policing, but KPAC-II is likely to attract colleagues who work in such areas as 'blue light' services (where the University is currently promoting its centres of excellence in the training of Paramedical professionals, Forensics (including Forensic Geoscience) and Public Health), and rural crime (involving research from sustainable communities to animal welfare).  There is additional potential for researchers in Life Sciences, (Geoscience and forensic work; biosecurity), Chemistry (with expertise on fire safety; Forensic Psychology, e.g.work on prevention of crime, criminal justice, forensic mental health, communication and decision making) and/or Maths/Computing (in areas such as cybersecurity; AI; digital crimes and harms). Expertise from the Law School and the Business School are also highly relevant here, e.g. regulation; death, dying and ethical practice; environmental law, among others. 

How We Would Implement This Idea

The existing KPAC structure is in place. Careful consideration needs to be given to the title and mission of the new entity. Some initial thoughts are that KPAC may still have 'brand recognition' as a university sponsored vehicle for outreach with external groups. The original mission may need extensive reviewing to reflect the new approach. It is proposed that KPAC-II would be administered from the School of Psychology but retain the original joint-directorship by Psychology and Criminology initially. Indeed, a co-directorship role would might be attractive if a career progression/development element was involved. 

PRC: What practical steps will we take to ensure that the new entity is open across disciplines and is consulting genuinely with external partners? 

Having received initial PRC feedback, we are convening a core group to steer the initial groundwork and sequence of practical activities for setting up/growing an RI.  Once this is done, the basic plan (incorporating feedback from the PRC) will be circulated to staff (academic; external relations; communications; partnerships) for consultation on potential interest in membership/change of name/update of mission/external/affiliate or external membership. 

The representation/voice of stakeholders, both within the university and external partners, are a key consideration. Practically, the first phase of consultation will involve interested parties within the university. This refers not only to academic schools and research groups, but units such as KISI, plus Engagement and Partnership.  

Secondly, we will need to look at different models of good practice regarding successful partnerships available in other research institutes, including the successful 'Institute for Creative and Cultural Industries' within HUMSS. We are confident that these examples, plus the experience and expertise of founding members, will support the partnership development work. 

To that end, we are in the process of;  

• Working out what relationships we have with external stakeholders who might be interested in some form of affiliation?  
• We are starting to map our existing external connections – on a spreadsheet initially - in criminal justice, third sector, governmental, health and other sectors.  This is a first step towards generating interest on the part of external affiliates to the revised version of the centre?     
• Keeping colleagues from KISI, Engagement & Partnership and eventually Communications in the loop is vital. 
• We will reach out to colleagues in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences to join the working group. Dr Krysia Canvin is already collaborating with Criminology colleagues. 

FUNDING 

A second question relates to ‘how to support this financially in the first instance to help progress the Centre from where it is now to what is proposed’?  

One advantage is that we are not starting from scratch, although the potential new iteration will be very different to the present KISI.  At this stage, work on funding basic administration/website costs amounts to:  

• Inquiries about funding has been made to the Faculty of Natural Sciences.   
• A joint bid to Deans of FNS and HUMSS will be submitted – for budget ary consideration from next year’s budget - post August 1, 2026 round.  
  We are inquiring whether we can pitch for funds for the launch of KISI-II in AY 2026/27. 
• The RI may be eligible for some future QR funding. 
• We are informed that normally the university hosts and maintains websites for Research Institutes and Centres on the Keele website here so we are not seeking funding for an additional website with a cost. 

Would external grant income success be needed here to achieve this? This is a more complicated issue as any levy from external grants to run the centre would likely be subject to the FEC conditions.  We would certainly have to work closely with the Deans of Research.  We will have to ascertain how the other Research Institutes approach this. One option is to explore how this proposal will really help our Research Environment/Culture story for the REF? 

Profile building

Colleagues are already active in building a public profile of research, albeit under the current KISI. This demonstrates why an expanded, multi-disciplinary RI will be essential support and showcase our research profile across the university, as well as enhancing our public story and research dissemination.  For example: 

Dr Helen Wells (Criminology) is seconded as Innovation and Insight Lead for the National Roads Policing Coordination Centre.  Dr Wells has also led partnerships between Keele and various police forces on projects such as digital public contact, AI, 'ghost' number plates, and VAWG 

Helen also is planning to run a one day event with Dr Krysia Canvin (Medicine and Health) about vehicles and VAWG in the future, which might coincide with the launch of KPAC-II. 

Dr Alexandra Kent is currently engaged in funded project work with Staffordshire Police. This includes externally facing events with charity and governmental partners and she was key to driving some of those conversations in the room. 

What Success Would Look Like

There is strong appetite for research and collaborative/partnership opportunities which needs a recognised structure to act as (i) a public point of contact and engagement for Keele researchers to maintain visibility and impact (ii) a crucible for identifying appropriate expertise in different parts of the university, as well as dissemination of research (iii) to coordinate research activities taking place across wide areas of the university (see below: cross-disciplinary research capacity); (iv) to act as a vehicle for managing and sustaining external relationships and embodying the university's civic profile.