The N8 PRP Police Priority Grants are open for applications and 5 new priorities have been announced.

N8 Policing Research Partnership has announced the 2025/26 Police Priority Grants Call is now open. Applications are invited from academics at N8 universities for projects in collaboration with N8 PRP police partners. 

Police Research Priorities Statement 

As part of the announcement, the Police Research Priority Statement 2025/26 was released. The Priority Statement identifies areas of research of particular interest and value to N8 PRP police partners, and is used to inform the N8 PRP programme for the project year. 

The Priorities enable more effective use of existing and ongoing research, and prompt innovative, socially significant research that would not otherwise have been generated or prioritised.

N8 PRP activity will seek to advance shared understanding and action on the priorities below through the Northern Evidence Based Policing Hub (NEBP Hub), which will allocate resources for Policing Priority Projects (12-month research awards), Agile Evidence Reviews (3-month review grants), and Knowledge Exchange Events (the Policing Innovation Forum and NEBP Hub meeting).

For 2025/26, the Priorities are on (1) Investigation and Outcomes, (2) VAWG and Domestic abuse: Demand and Victimisation, (3) Workforce: How can police officer workloads be managed effectively?, (3) Neighbourhood Policing: Understanding neighbourhood and hotspot policing, and (5) Policing and Health.

Further detail on the context and questions for all of the priorities are available in the Police Research Priority Statement 2025/26. 

Police Priority Grants 

The Policing Priority Grants are research awards providing pump-priming funds for collaborative, targeted research into high-priority areas, new challenges, and pressing concerns in policing.

N8 academics are invited to submit a proposal prompted by the Priorities or as part of the ‘open category’. The deadline for applications is 2 January 2026. 

The grants are a seedcorn fund intended to enable N8 researchers to develop ideas, preliminary evidence and collaborative relationships with police stakeholders, so they can bid for external funding awards. The grants are also intended to be of mutual benefit to police stakeholders, especially those in the N8 PRP, in terms of potential changes to policy, practice and its impact on wider society.

In this final year of the Police Priority Grant scheme, whilst we welcome all applications in accordance with the eligibility criteria, N8 PRP will prioritise researchers who have not previously received N8 PRP funding.

Further information on the Grants and the application process is available on the Policing Priority Grants Call 2025/26 page. 

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