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New Engagements between JSaRC and Academia

New Engagements between JSaRC and Academia

The Joint Security and Resilience Centre (JSaRC) has commissioned a project to identify and engage with academic developments in the fields of security, counter-terrorism and domestic extremism.

The challenge is to harness the relationship between JSaRC and Academia to drive the establishment of a robust network which will then facilitate access to expertise and lead to engagement for security related projects. This will include the development of several regional workshops later in the year.

Dr Neil Hipps is leading this project. He is seconded to JSaRC for 12 months, and will be providing a focal point for academics and civil servants with security related interests. Dr Hipps has spent over 30 years as a research scientist and senior manager working with partners in the public, private and academic sectors. Recently, he has been a business relationship manager at the University of Kent’s Innovation and Enterprise Service, where he interfaced between academics and the business community.

Joining Neil on the project is Professor Chris Hankin, who has been a professor of Computing Science at Imperial College London since 1995 and is Chair of Academic RiSC*. Chris is joint director of the Institute for Security Science and Technology (ISST), and is accompanied on this project by Max Swinscow-Hall who is the communications and policy outreach officer at ISST.

*Academic RiSC (an open network of 31 universities) was formed to allow academia to contribute and engage in solutions to national security and resilience challenges. It was inspired by the success of the Security and Resilience Industry Suppliers Community (RISC), an inclusive alliance of trade associations and bodies which represent the UK’s security and resilience sector.

Academic RiSC will be used to provide communications to broaden the reach and scope of JSaRC’s projects. Alongside this, other academic research networks and centres that focus on security will be utilised to further identify relevant expertise with whom to engage.