This project aims to transform awareness and understanding of the "Incel' community (Involuntary Celibates), and the contexts in which susceptible young men are indoctrinated into misogynistic extremism and in some cases, mass murder. Creative research methods are core to the approach due to the research team's experience of using these methods with disenfranchised communities (e.g. Incels and neurodivergent groups) as well as the practices of Incels, which employ digital art-making within the processes of indoctrination. Working in collaboration with both counter-terrorism command and Prevent programming with the Metropolitan Police (MET) and Police Scotland, the project builds on the research team's previous experiences, using interdisciplinary and creative methods to develop training for professionals working in the contexts of education, health, social care and the criminal justice system. Through the development of an expert interdisciplinary network, novel methods, and a socially engaged approach, the project's preventative orientation seeks to save the lives of potential victims as well as perpetrators. This will be achieved through the development of new knowledge about the culture of Incels, the identities and experiences of this complex community and the factors contributing to the risk of extreme violence and hate crimes. In partnership with the Met and Police Scotland we will develop (i) training and resources to be used in identifying and working with Incel members; (ii) establish and consult with an expert interdisciplinary network towards a preventative programme; (iii) communicate new knowledge to enhance public awareness and understanding through creative media and publications.

There are many interesting open questions at the interface between applied mathematics, scientific computing and applied statistics. Mathematics is the language of science, we use it to describe the laws of motion that govern natural and technological systems. We use statistics to make sense of data. We develop and test computer algorithms that make these ideas concrete. By bringing these concepts together in a systematic way we can validate and sharpen our hypothesis about the underlying science, and make predictions about future behaviour. This general field of Uncertainty Quantification is a very active area of research, with many challenges; from intellectual questions about how to define and measure uncertainty to very practical issues concerning the need to perform intensive computational experiments as efficiently as possible. ICONIC brings together a team of high profile researchers with the appropriate combination of skills in modeling, numerical analysis, statistics and high performance computing. To give a concrete target for impact, the ICONIC project will focus initially on Uncertainty Quantification for mathematical models relating to crime, security and resilience in urban environments. Then, acknowledging that urban analytics is a very fast-moving field where new technologies and data sources emerge rapidly, and exploiting the flexibility built into an EPSRC programme grant, we will apply the new tools to related city topics concerning human mobility, transport and infrastructure. In this way, the project will enhance the UK's research capabilities in the fast-moving and globally significant Future Cities field. The project will exploit the team's strong existing contacts with Future Cities laboratories around the world, and with nonacademic stakeholders who are keen to exploit the outcomes of the research. As new technologies emerge, and as more people around the world choose to live and work in urban environments, the Future Cities field is generating vast quantities of potentially valuable data. ICONIC will build on the UK's strength in basic mathematical sciences--the cleverness needed to add value to these data sources--in order to produce new algorithms and computational tools. The research will be conducted alongside stakeholders--including law enforcement agencies, technical IT and infrastructure providers, utility companies and policy-makers. These external partners will provide feedback and challenges, and will be ready to extract value from the tools that we develop. We also have an international Advisory Board of committed partners with relevant expertise in academic research, policymaking, law enforcement, business engagement and public outreach. With these structures in place, the research will have a direct impact on the UK economy, as the nation competes for business in the global Future Cities marketplace. Further, by focusing on crime, security and resilience we will directly improve the lives of individual citizens.

There are many interesting open questions at the interface between applied mathematics, scientific computing and applied statistics. Mathematics is the language of science, we use it to describe the laws of motion that govern natural and technological systems. We use statistics to make sense of data. We develop and test computer algorithms that make these ideas concrete. By bringing these concepts together in a systematic way we can validate and sharpen our hypothesis about the underlying science, and make predictions about future behaviour. This general field of Uncertainty Quantification is a very active area of research, with many challenges; from intellectual questions about how to define and measure uncertainty to very practical issues concerning the need to perform intensive computational experiments as efficiently as possible. ICONIC brings together a team of high profile researchers with the appropriate combination of skills in modeling, numerical analysis, statistics and high performance computing. To give a concrete target for impact, the ICONIC project will focus initially on Uncertainty Quantification for mathematical models relating to crime, security and resilience in urban environments. Then, acknowledging that urban analytics is a very fast-moving field where new technologies and data sources emerge rapidly, and exploiting the flexibility built into an EPSRC programme grant, we will apply the new tools to related city topics concerning human mobility, transport and infrastructure. In this way, the project will enhance the UK's research capabilities in the fast-moving and globally significant Future Cities field. The project will exploit the team's strong existing contacts with Future Cities laboratories around the world, and with nonacademic stakeholders who are keen to exploit the outcomes of the research. As new technologies emerge, and as more people around the world choose to live and work in urban environments, the Future Cities field is generating vast quantities of potentially valuable data. ICONIC will build on the UK's strength in basic mathematical sciences--the cleverness needed to add value to these data sources--in order to produce new algorithms and computational tools. The research will be conducted alongside stakeholders--including law enforcement agencies, technical IT and infrastructure providers, utility companies and policy-makers. These external partners will provide feedback and challenges, and will be ready to extract value from the tools that we develop. We also have an international Advisory Board of committed partners with relevant expertise in academic research, policymaking, law enforcement, business engagement and public outreach. With these structures in place, the research will have a direct impact on the UK economy, as the nation competes for business in the global Future Cities marketplace. Further, by focusing on crime, security and resilience we will directly improve the lives of individual citizens.

Police officers are public-facing professionals. This means they operate in the public eye with at times dramatic repercussions for their private lives (e.g., 'trial by social media', unwanted identification, online harassment and threats to themselves or their families). While this is often framed as a way to 'redress police injustices' or as a democratising potential of 'watching back', it threatens officers' social standing as well as mental and physical health outside of their professional role. Their loved ones (spouses, children, other close family members) are involved directly and immediately, either because they are also targeted or because they have to live with fears and accept restrictions to their online participation in order to safeguard their police family members. Due to this, public-facing professionals police personnel (LPFPs) and their dependents clearly face strong challenges and risks to their rights and opportunities as citizens online. 3PO takes the unusual and pioneering step to re-focus the theme of protecting citizens online to the law enforcement domain, which is often treated as the one 'citizens need protection from'. However, at present neither the extent of online risks for officers, let alone their dependents, is known nor do credible plans exists for safeguarding this citizen group online. The 3PO project will address these gaps through a user-centred approach that will deliver a series of targeted outcomes. Firstly, 3PO will create in-depth knowledge about the extent, nature, drivers, mechanisms and consequences of online risks and harms for LPFPs and their dependents. This will lead to important refinements in current understandings of privacy and consent as collective concepts that need to be negotiated in (family/professional) groups and create a taxonomy of LPFP-specific online risks and harms. A major focus will be on the co-creation of three user-focused tools for LPFPs and dependents for reactive and proactive protection: (1) a Harm Reporting Application for LPFPs and/or their dependents to report incidents, problematic events or concerns to instigate support and protection measures, (2) a Vulnerability Assessment ("self-check") App to assess their own online presence and account settings to identify potential risks, (3) an AI-based harm mitigation and risk assessment platform for police organisations consisting of AI-based analysis capabilities and a dashboard for the visualisation of reactive analysis and proactive monitoring of individual and organisational harm profiles. Thirdly, 3PO will produce design and policy recommendations and specialised police training and awareness campaigns. The project will do so by utilising a highly experienced consortium of applied and policy researchers from Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, UCL and Napier led by the globally connected security research Centre of Excellence in Terrorism, Resilience, Intelligence and Organised Crime Research (CENTRIC) at Sheffield Hallam University. To guarantee outcomes are co-developed with and fully pertinent for our target group, 3PO comprises six UK police forces (Metropolitan Police, Police Scotland, Police Service Northern Ireland, South Yorkshire Police, Lancashire Police, Humberside Police) and the Home Office as active research partners. 3PO results will benefit societal groups outside police and law enforcement, as knowledge and products transfer to other public-facing professions faced with the same challenge such politicians, teachers, emergency services, NHS staff, journalists, amongst others. Hence, 3PO's results and products will be relevant for a large number of groups crucial for societal functioning and resilience.

The study seeks to further the ESRC's strategic objective of a 'safer, fairer society' through establishing a new evidence-base on public health approaches to violence reduction, and the ways such policies transfer between jurisdictions, to shape policy, guide best practice, and inform academic and public debate. The study responds to the urgent social problem of rising youth violence. England and Wales have seen marked increases in homicide, knife crime, and hospital admissions for stab-wounds, with particular concentrations in the city of London. Cressida Dick, Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, has stated that tackling youth violence is her 'number one priority.' In March 2019, UK Prime Minister Theresa May unveiled a consultation on a new public health strategy for youth violence. This approach, which seeks to address violence using principles of prevention and education rather than policing and justice, marks a major step-change in policy. The interest in developing this approach stems primarily from Scotland, where radical reductions in violent crime over the last decade have been attributed to the adoption of a public health model. There is however a lack of clear understanding of 'what worked' in the Scottish context. While there have indeed been marked declines in youth violence, the mechanisms that have driven this decrease are poorly understood. There is confusion over what public health approaches are, how they work, and the conditions under which such ideas can travel. As a result, despite significant potential, the implications of the public health approach remain vague. The study will be delivered in three work-streams over a three year period: 1. What Worked Through thirty semi-structured interviews with elite actors - senior police, politicians, and civil servants - we will establish an expert appraisal of the causes of violence reduction in Scotland. This will be complemented by a detailed documentary analysis, investigating the social, political, and cultural conditions in which violence reduction occurred, and a series of twenty semi-structured interviews with practitioners and residents of communities affected by violence to establish a bottom-up account of change. Finally, available statistical data on violence and health will be leveraged to triangulate explanations. These data-sources will be combined to produce a policy briefing, two journal articles, and a short film on the theme of 'what worked'. 2. Policy Travels Using flexible and responsive ethnographic methods, we will track the evolution of the public health approach in London as it evolves in real time, entering the 'assumptive worlds' of policy through attendance at key meetings and events. Observations will be complemented by a series of thirty semi-structured interviews with elite actors engaged in violence reduction in London, and twenty semi-structured interviews with local residents and youth practitioners, exploring the factors that promote or impede change. Mirroring data-collection in Scotland, relevant statistical data will be used to evaluate the extent to which policy changes are impacting on violence reduction. These data will be used to produce a second policy briefing, two journal articles, and a series of podcasts on 'how ideas travel'. 3. Connecting Communities Data from these work-streams will be connected via an open access data-set to enhance understanding of best practice in violence reduction. Data will be analysed and published as an academic monograph aimed at scholars working in the areas of criminology, public health and social policy. Through our advisory group and engagement with policy user-groups, we will engage directly with policy actors at the highest level, and using cooperative methods will create a practitioner toolkit. Communities of policy, practice and public will be connected through a website, a series of events and a roadshow.