N8 PRP announces new Police Priority Grant awards
The N8 Policing Research Partnership has awarded three new Police Priority Grants for 12-month research projects beginning in August 2026.
These awards represent the second funding round of 2026 and the final round of funding through the Police Priority Grants programme. Previously known as the Small Grants programme, the scheme has supported collaborative research between N8 universities and policing partners since 2016-17.
The programme provides seedcorn funding to help researchers develop innovative policing research and build partnerships with policing stakeholders.
Over its lifetime, the programme has supported 32 projects. Earlier this year, N8 PRP announced funding for two further projects exploring voluntary interviews and police engagement with wellbeing resources.
The latest awards have been made to the following projects:
Understanding domestic abuse incident outcomes
Professor Barry Godfrey, from the University of Liverpool, will lead a project examining domestic abuse incidents recorded by police, with a particular focus on cases closed under Home Office Outcome 16.
Working with co-investigators Professor Abderrahim Taamouti and Professor Catrien Bijleveld, also from the University of Liverpool, the project will analyse large police datasets to identify patterns in repeat incidents and explore how these relate to different case and offender characteristics.
The project responds to the N8 PRP priority on Violence Against Women and Girls and Domestic Abuse and will be delivered in partnership with Cheshire Police and Merseyside Police.
Professor Barry Godfrey comments:
“Using advanced and tailored multivariate techniques, this project brings together criminologists, econometricians and digital experts to analyse a large sample of police data on VAWG/DA incidents to investigate how soon after one incident, a further incident occurs. This will enable us to model the likelihood of subsequent incidents as a function of multiple offender characteristics and all outcome codes. We will then discuss with police DA/VAWG leads whether proactive measures can be put in place following Outcome 16 incidents to prevent (at best) or lengthen (at worst) time intervals between incidents involving the same perpetrator. This kind of research which explores new technologies to produce real-world benefits is exactly the thing we need to see.”
Preventing suicides after release from police custody
Professor Layla Skinns, from the University of Sheffield, will lead a project investigating suicides following release from police custody.
The research team includes Katie Weir and Emma Tuschick from the University of Sheffield, Professor Catherine Robinson from the University of Manchester, and Dr Iain McKinnon from Newcastle University.
Delivered in partnership with South Yorkshire Police, Northumbria Police, Cleveland Police, Lancashire Police, the Independent Office for Police Conduct and the National Police Chiefs’ Council, the project will analyse national datasets to identify risk factors, contextual characteristics and patterns among affected individuals.
The project responds to the N8 PRP priority on Policing and Health. It builds on an earlier N8 PRP Agile Evidence Review on suicide prevention during sexual offence investigations, led by Emma Tuschick, and aims to generate evidence to inform policy and practice around suicide prevention, mental health care and interagency working in police custody settings.
Dr Emma Tuschick comments:
“This project builds directly on findings from our N8 AER and represents an important next step in understanding and preventing suicide among people in police custody. We hope the research will generate evidence that can support more effective, compassionate, and evidence-informed responses across policing and partner agencies. A particular strength of the project is the partnership between researchers and police services. Bringing together these different perspectives will help ensure the research is both scientifically robust and grounded in the realities of practice, ultimately supporting the development of meaningful recommendations that can improve outcomes for individuals, families, and services.”
Improving police interactions with autistic adults
Dr Lara Warmelink, from Lancaster University, will lead a project exploring the experiences and challenges faced by police personnel when interacting with autistic adults across operational contexts.
Working with co-investigators Dr Calum Hartley and Dr Chris Walton, also from Lancaster University, the project will examine role-specific challenges, skills gaps and training needs.
Delivered in partnership with Cleveland Police, Northumbria Police and KeyRing, the project responds to the N8 PRP priority on Policing and Health. Its findings will inform practical, role-specific support and autism training to strengthen inclusive and effective policing practice.
Dr Lara Warmelink comments:
“We’re very excited to be working with Northumbria and Cleveland police, as well as social care support charity KeyRing, on our project on police personnel’s experiences of interacting with autistics adults. In this project we’ll be exploring the challenges that frontline officers, custody sergeants and interviewers face. We’re hoping to identify the additional knowledge and support that police officers would find most valuable to help them overcome such challenges. We believe that working closely with the police and autistic people will help us understand what can be done to make these interactions better for all involved.”
Explore previous Police Priority Grants projects and reports.
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