Trust and confidence in policing: Research & Innovation Consortium
Trust and confidence in policing: Research & Innovation Consortium supports researchers and policing partners to measure public trust in real time and pilot ways to build and sustain it across the UK.
Funder: UK Research and Innovation
Due Dates: October 27, 2026, 4:00pm UK time (application deadline)
Funding Amounts: One 36-month consortium; up to £2 million full economic cost, funded at 80%
Summary: Develop real-time measures of public trust in UK policing and pilot approaches to build and sustain it.
Key Information: The project lead must be based at a UK research organisation eligible for UKRI funding.
Description
UK Research and Innovation will fund one Research & Innovation Consortium through its Safer Streets Research and Development Missions Accelerator Programme. The consortium will develop engaging, affordable and scalable ways for police and their partners to measure public trust and confidence in real time, then test approaches intended to build and sustain that trust. Its measures must capture views across the wider British public while prioritising children under 18 and victims and survivors of violence against women and girls.
The consortium will bring together researchers, police, community safety and justice leads, policymakers, third sector organisations, community groups and relevant industry partners. It will co-design tools with communities, test them alongside policing activity, run pilots with UK police forces and use the findings to contribute to a Public Confidence in Policing Playbook.
