University of Rome La Sapineza – Pomezia Campus

A Memorandum of Understanding was signed in January 2010 between IACFS, the School of Human and Health Sciences and a new International University Network (IUN) led by the Centre for Advanced Studies in Terrorism of Political Violence (Ce.A.S) at the University of Rome, Pomezia.  The IUN, which is supported by the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI, www.unicri.it), brings together academic institutions, government agencies, think tanks and private sector companies from across Europe to promote research, training, consultancy and joint publications in the area of security and related fields.  This link follows a visit to Huddersfield in October 2009 by Ce.A.S  Director,  Professor Alessandro Ceci and  his colleague Dr. Alfredo D’Ascoli Graziano. This represents a major opportunity for IACFS to develop its international links and to build up a network of partners for future EU bids.

Collaboration has already started on two activities. In March 2010, Professor Hirschfield delivered a one day workshop in Pomezia on ‘What Crime Prevention can Tell us About  Preventing Terrorism’ as part of a short course  of four workshops on terrorism risks being run by the University of Rome, Pomezia and UNICRI. Two PhD students from the School were awarded scholarships by UNICRI to attend the event. Professor Hirschfield has also been invited to join a major international counter terrorism forum (ICTAC) that was founded in 2003 to provide guidance to politicians and decision makers on counter terrorism policy.  He attended the ICTAC Conference held in Pomezia between 4th and 6th March 2010

Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada

Professor Hirschfield and Dr Newton have been invited to collaborate with the Institute for Canadian Urban Research Studies (ICURS) at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada on researching links between crime, land use and socio-demographic composition. This has developed as a result of meetings with Professors Paul and Patricia Brantingham at the Environment Criminology and Crime Analysis Conference in 2008. In 2009, the ACC’s Dr. Andrew Newton attended a meeting in Vancouver, funded by Simon Fraser University, to identify potential research projects.   As a result, a British Academy Grant Application is now under preparation. This area of research complements the development of offender profiling software by IACFS’s Research Fellow Dr. Piotr Juszczak, discussed above.

Belgorod Police Training Institute, Russia

Early discussions are taking place with the Police Training Institute in Belgorod, Russia and IACFS about collaboration in research and training. A meeting, in Belgorod, is in the process of being arranged for later in the year  to identify joint activities. An invitation has also been received to give a presentation at an International Police Conference in October 2010.  This is precisely the kind of collaboration anticipated in the IACFS funding proposal.

Other Developments

• Professor Hirschfield has been appointed to the Board of the Yorkshire and Humberside Fraud Forum.  Several presentations have been delivered to the Forum by IACFS members including a session on fraud detection (Canter, January 09) and one on interviewing techniques (Roach, Jun 09). A workshop on Offender Profiling is planned for April 2010.

• Professor Liam Blunt has successfully negotiated a private sector-led Case Award Application to EPSRC on ‘Ballistics Analysis’ headed by IACFS collaborator, Forensic Pathways  Ltd

• Professor Liam Blunt has also secured an ‘Industrial/Manufacturing Advisory Service Contract on Ballistics Software to Forensic Pathways  Ltd

• A patent application has been approved on a mathematical application for ballistics analysis developed in the Centre for Precision Technologies