The Safer Streets research and development (R&D) mission, part of UKRI’s Research and Development Missions Accelerator Programme (R&D MAP), is launching its first initiative, the Concentrations of Crime Data R&I Challenge.
This challenge, backed by a new £4 million investment, will fund research to explore how advanced data analysis can inform more effective crime prevention strategies.
This work builds on our first research and innovation (R&I) challenge focusing on improving the UK’s power grid flexibility through artificial intelligence (AI) and digital innovation.
The absence of a single unified view of crime in the UK has long inhibited public understanding and effective policing interventions.
To address this, a new initiative is focused on bringing together data that has never been mapped before at a large scale.
Integrated data map
The ambition of the challenge is to develop a regional and national integrated data map by 2030.
This map is designed with a fine-grained level of detail to detect, track and predict the concentrations of high-harm crimes.
These crimes include:
- knife crime
- violence against women and girls
- theft
- anti-social behaviour
A central part of this work involves overcoming the challenges of data sharing.
The programme will fund projects specifically to develop sensitive data-sharing capabilities, which are essential for enabling collaboration across different systems.
In parallel, UKRI will challenge industry and the third sector to develop the interventions and tools needed to achieve the goal of a comprehensive data map built on these new capabilities.
Four initial projects
The challenge projects will identify critical data gaps and set the foundation for developing national data capabilities to achieve violence reduction.
Four initial projects have been commissioned to explore these themes, combining cutting-edge data science with community engagement.
These projects will map crime hotspots, analyse offender networks and investigate how online behaviours influence street-level violence.
By working with local communities, law enforcement, and expert partners, the challenge will deliver scalable tools and insights to support targeted crime prevention and improve safety across England and Wales.
Technology improving lives
Whilst visiting the Met Police, Science and Technology Secretary, Peter Kyle said:
Cutting-edge technology like AI can improve our lives in so many ways, including in keeping us safe, which is why we’re putting it to work for victims over vandals, the law-abiding majority over the lawbreakers.
Our police officers are at their best when they join up to prevent crime rather than react to it, and R&D can deliver crucial tools for them to stay one step ahead of potential dangers to the public and property – keeping our streets safe and delivering on our Plan for Change.
Safer streets for everyone
Professor Christopher Smith, Executive Chair of the Arts and Humanities Research Council and Senior Responsible Officer for the Safer Streets R&D MAP said:
Increasing safety for communities is a key priority for us all.
It requires a deeper understanding of the complex group and individual level dynamics that underpin crime, and a willingness to use new methods to tackle these challenges effectively.
The UKRI Concentrations of Crime Data R&I Challenge is a new approach to community safety that affirms the significance of arts and humanities-based approaches in creating contextual, place-sensitive, and qualitative approaches to data.
We are bringing together leading experts from different fields to develop a new national capability.
By linking criminal justice data with insights from health, education, and online platforms, our goal is to use data and advanced analytics in a responsible way to build a more comprehensive picture of how and why crime becomes concentrated.
This work is about providing our partners in law enforcement and other sectors with richer data and more targeted tools for intervention.
By understanding these patterns of crime, we can support prevention strategies that are effective and tailored to specific community needs, helping to make our streets safer for everyone.