The All-Wales Policing Academic Collaboration (AWPAC) brings together all four Welsh police forces, the offices of the four Police and Crime Commissioners, and universities across Wales to build a stronger, evidence-based foundation for policing research.
AWPAC grows partnerships between policing and academic communities, strengthens opportunities to secure joint external research funding, and helps share best practices and policy-informed research that improves lives across Wales. Since its inception, AWPAC has funded multi-year collaborative projects tackling urgent priorities like domestic abuse, violence against women and girls, and increasing public trust in policing.
Strategic aims:
- Forging equitable partnerships for collaborative working at an all-Wales level between the police and academic sectors.
- Enabling all-Wales partnerships to create larger, collaborative bids, to capture external grant funding at an all-Wales level.
- Working in partnership to create research impact, benefit police policy and to share best practice across Wales.
The AWPAC focus for 2024-2028 is increasing public confidence and trust in the police.
The collaboration is overseen by a steering group that has representatives from each of the universities in Wales, the four Welsh police forces and the four Office for Police and Crime Commissioners. The steering group is co-chaired by Professor Martina Feilzer of Bangor University and Temporary Detective Chief Superintendent Ross Evans of Dyfed-Powys police force.