The UPSI research staff are located in the School of Social Sciences at Cardiff University.
The School is one of the largest and most influential centres for academic research in the Social Sciences in the UK. Through the activities of its Criminal Justice Research Group it has established an enviable reputation for conducting leading-edge research on policing and a range of other Criminological subjects. As such, one role for the Institute will be to draw upon the specialist expertise of staff from across the School in conducting its research projects on policing and associated matters, and also to find ways of ensuring that findings from a range of projects are made available to police officers so that they can develop their evidence-based practice.
Additionally, across a number of other Schools at Cardiff University research is ongoing on topics and subjects of direct relevance to the conduct of policing. The inter-disciplinary orientation of the Institute means it is especially well placed to create connections between researchers with innovative ideas they want to develop and test in ‘real world’ environments, and policing practitioners who might be able to use these ideas to solve the problems they face in their work. Establishing an effective interface for promoting these kinds of knowledge transfer is central to the role of the UPSI from Cardiff University’s point of view.
