The Vulnerability & Policing Futures Research Centre runs an annual Early Career Researcher (ECR) Development Fund for research that aligns with the Centre’s programme of work, values and principles.
The Fund aims to build research capacity and capability to tackle current and emerging challenges related to vulnerability and policing. It seeks to widen the reach of the Centre’s work, enabling early career researchers to lead co-produced pioneering projects that contribute new findings and insights. It supports research in areas where knowledge gaps are most prominent and where research benefits offer the greatest value.
Research grants of up to £25,000 for 12-month projects are available. The Centre provides support to the successful applicants to maximise the reach and impact of their research.
ECR Development Fund for 2024
The 2024 Fund is a vulnerability and policing open call with a particular emphasis on the following themes:
- vulnerability and neurodivergence;
- race, ethnicity and vulnerability;
- asylum seekers and vulnerable migrants.
For this call, we are keen to solicit applications that deploy innovative methodologies and/or combine different datasets.
Applications should align with the Vulnerability and Policing Futures Research Centre’s programme of work and values and principles.
Deadline for applications: Monday 15 January 2024, 4pm GMT.
ECR Development Fund for 2023
The Centre funded five projects in the first year of its ECR Development Fund, having received a wide range of high-quality applications. The funded projects are:
- Social Media-Facilitated Trafficking of Children and Young People – Dr Laura Pajón (Liverpool John Moores University)
- Who matters? A collaborative co-investigation of who needs to be included, according to families with children with explosive and controlling impulses – Dr Nikki Rutter (Durham University)
- Reducing Barriers to Reporting Public Sexual Harassment to the Police: Towards Procedural Justice for Racially Minoritised Vulnerable Young Women and Girls – Dr Nadia Jessop (University of York)
- Test Purchasing in Undercover Drugs Policing: Reconfiguring Strategic and Operational Practice as part of the Vulnerability Agenda – Dr Leah Moyle (University of Plymouth)
- Domestic Abuse Service Providers and their Stories – Dr Rebecca Shaw (University of Leeds)