The UK government is putting £50m into a series of challenges funding technological solutions to improve safety on British streets.
Delivered by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), the Safer Streets Challenges funding is part of the government’s £500m Research and Development Missions Accelerator Programme.
The Safer Streets Mission was launched with a handful of goals including halving knife crime and violence against women and girls within a decade and rebuilding public confidence in the police and the criminal justice system.
UKRI will fund a series of community-led pilots that will test technologies including an AI national crime map, new protective features for children and young people in online spaces and digital community engagement tools for the public to interact with policing and other agencies.
“Behind every crime statistic, is a story of somebody who has had their life affected, sometimes irreversibly, by a serious and distressing experience,” said Science Minister Lord Vallance.
“It’s so important that we do everything we can to help prevent harms from happening in the first place.
“We have an extraordinary research community in the UK, and this programme is about harnessing their innovation and expertise, backing them with dedicated government funding, to help tackle these crimes and the problems they create in people’s daily lives.”
The projects will be managed by groups of researchers, communities and law enforcement groups.
“This is an exciting opportunity to bring together expertise from across our communities to make all our lives safer,” said Gill Attrill, challenge director for the Safer Streets Mission at UKRI.
“By combining lived experience and community insight with academic rigour, industry innovation, philanthropic investment, the skills and commitment of our police and community services we have a unique opportunity to make a difference.”
