REPHRAIN SAFER STREETS Strategic Funding Call

The REPHRAIN SAFER STREETS Strategic Funding programme will commission pilot studies that relate to the REPHRAIN Safer Streets research programme, primarily focusing on the following interlinking core research strands:  

1. Understanding crime-related issues locally and potential for targeted prevention led by REPHRAIN (University of Bristol) 
2. Using online data to support local policing efforts led by CENTRIC (Sheffield Hallam University) 
3. Linking digital data to individual and group characteristics for prediction led by The Institute for Digital Security and Behaviour (University of Bath) 

Pilot studies should evaluate what approaches can be deployed and scaled up in other locations, providing evidence on: what scales, how and why; place-based factors that act as drivers and barriers; and pathways to address the scalability issues in order to deliver an over-arching national Safer Streets capability by 2030. The studies should be linked to one strand only and not try to cover cross-strand research.  

Pilots will receive support from the core research team at Bristol, Bath and Sheffield depending on which strand the study relates to. The strategic funding will support pilots in other parts of the UK. 

The total funding for this call is £100,000 (at 100% fEC), of which 80% will be funded by REPHRAIN. We expect to fund 3-6 proposals from this fund with an expected maximum funding of £30k per proposal.  Funded projects may start on or before 01 December 2025 but must be completed with all deliverables accepted by 28 February 2026.   

Full details of the call, how to apply and funding terms and conditions can be found in the documents below. 

1. Call document
2. Application form
3. Draft call terms and conditions 

Proposals should be submitted by 4pm (BST) on 10 October 2025 by emailing a single pdf to rephrain-centre@bristol.ac.uk.