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.

This research proposal addresses the needs identified by end-users within UK law enforcement agencies for forensic data to support intelligence lead policing as well as the demands placed on them to achieve secure convictions. Isotope profiling in particular has been identified by the Forensic Science Service as a potentially powerful tool to address the intelligence needs for intelligence lead policing.Clandestine synthesis and movement of drugs are a global problem run by many international criminal networks. Increasing drug linkage information will lead to an increase in objective scientific intelligence about international networks and improve opportunities to disrupt such networks.Of the illicit drugs, homemade and imported MDMA ('Ecstasy') is of particular concern to most law enforcement agencies in the UK. For example, the most recent NCIS Scottish Strategic Assessment has determined a significant increase in the threat to Scottish communities posed by organised crime.The situation is one of increased sophistication and globalisation, with longstanding and well-established links between organised crimein the UK, Europe, the former Soviet Bloc countries, Asia and South America.

Compliance with the Coronavirus Regulations has been one of the most hotly debated topics of the pandemic. UK Police Forces were given unprecedented new powers to enforce non-compliance with the Regulations, and yet there is a striking lack of robust evidence about how the powers were used and who was subject to them. There is very little known about the characteristics and circumstances of those failing to comply with the Regulations. We know little about the reasons for their non-compliant behaviour, the level of risk they posed to the public (in terms of the spread of the disease) or the impact of police enforcement on their lives. This project will conduct an in-depth examination of the factors and vulnerabilities underlying people's inability or unwillingness to comply and their Covid-19 testing and mortality outcomes. It will also explore police use of enforcement to secure compliance and the impact of this on individuals. Using a mixed method approach, it will provide insights from a unique database of Fixed Penalty Notices that were issued in Scotland, which will be linked at an individual level to a rich array of health, economic and social data within Scotland's Covid-19 Data for Research. It will also offer insights from interviews with individual offenders and police officers involved in the use of enforcement. The findings will be of significant interest and value to police officers, policy makers, and politicians across the UK in considering how best to encourage, enable, support or compel people to adhere to the Regulations as we encounter future waves of the current pandemic, and in any future public health (or other) emergency requiring some form of mass public compliance.

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.