GrantRadar

UK Research and Innovation

Trust and confidence in policing: Research & Innovation Consortium

UKRI funding, under the Safer Streets R&D Missions Accelerator Programme, for one Research & Innovation Consortium to develop and test dynamic, affordable tools for measuring public trust and confidence in policing in real time, and to pilot ways of improving it with at least four UK police forces. The consortium must prioritise the voices of children under 18 and victims of violence against women and girls. The project lead must be at a UK research organisation eligible for UKRI funding; the core team should also include co-leads from business, third sector or government bodies. The consortium can cost up to £2 million full economic cost (UKRI pays 80%) over 36 months from 1 February 2027, with at least 40% set aside as a flexible fund for small pilot projects run by others.

Apply on the funder’s site
You could get
£1 – £2,000,000
Closes in
9 days left
27 October
Effort
Heavy
budgets, references, often several stages

Who can apply

  • Open to organisations with standard UKRI eligibility
  • The project lead must be based at a UK research organisation eligible for UKRI funding, and only that lead research organisation can submit
  • Individuals from UK businesses, third sector organisations and government bodies can be included as project co-leads under UKRI's policy for such co-leads, and the core team should include them alongside research organisation co-leads; international researchers can be project co-lead (international)
  • Other international collaborators and UK partners not at approved organisations take part as project partners
  • The consortium must bring together academics (including people with research or lived experience in relevant communities), police, community safety and justice leads, policymakers, third sector and community groups and industry
  • Applicants must show a track record of collaboration with police forces, evidenced by partner letters of support, or a credible plan to secure police partners quickly, as at least four pilots with UK police forces are required
  • Only one consortium will be funded
  • No institutional matched funding is required beyond the standard 20% FEC

What it funds

  • Innovative workstreams and activities, for example workshops that kick-start new collaborations, support initial testing of new ideas, test tools or approaches, gather feedback from specific stakeholder or community groups, or enable co-creation
  • A flexible fund for small research projects or pilots by researchers outside the core team, of at least 40% of the consortium's FEC, used to:
  • Co-design tools and approaches with communities and less well heard groups
  • Trial different tools and approaches to test their capability
  • Work with underrepresented groups and police partners to understand what does and does not work
  • Prototype or instrument design

the consortium runs a scoping phase, develops tools (available for piloting by December 2027), trials and refines them against real policing interventions (by March 2029), contributes to a Public Confidence in Policing Playbook (by December 2029) and completes by March 2030. Certain project co-leads may exceptionally be funded at 100% FEC from the flexible fund. A proportionate review near the end may lead to further investment for trialling or scaling.

What it will not fund

  • Associated studentships
  • Conventional large scale surveys and public opinion polls
  • Research that makes a purely theoretical or methodological contribution to academic debates
  • Projects not primarily focused on trust and confidence in UK policing

How to apply

  1. Make sure your research organisation is registered on the UKRI Funding Service (Je-S is not used)
  2. Start an application on the UKRI Funding Service (https://funding-service.ukri.org/OPP1409/apply/1437) and confirm you are the project lead
  3. Answer the questions: summary, core team, vision, approach (including a co-design plan), governance, applicant and team capability (R4RI narrative), ethics and RRI, resources and cost justification, flexible fund, place, project partners, data management and sharing, facilities, and Trusted Research and Innovation
  4. Upload letters or emails of support from each project partner as a single PDF
  5. Send the application to your research office for checking; they submit it to UKRI by 4pm on 27 October 2026

the webinar for applicants was on 16 September 2026 and has passed; it was not compulsory.

Have ready

  • Project partner letters or emails of support: a single PDF, up to 2 sides of A4 per partner, in English or Welsh, confirming commitment, value to the partner and what they add

the rest of the application is answered in Funding Service text boxes; images are allowed but not text or tables in images.

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