Background
The International Academic Partnerships for Science and Security (IAPSS), co-led by the National Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology, and Education Center (NCITE, USA) and the Centre for Research and Evidence on Security Threats (CREST, UK), is an International Hub for Knowledge Exchange to enhance collaboration between academic researchers focused on the scholarly study of terrorism and targeted violence prevention (TVTP).
Inspired by the cooperation and success of the Five Research and Development (5RD) Countering Violent Extremism Network; which brought together public safety and security entities of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States, to support internationally relevant research to prevent or counter the effects of terrorism and mass violence; IAPSS seeks to emulate similar activity among academic researchers in TVTP.
While IAPSS is a hub of academics, it offers a docking point for government officials
to connect with relevant expertise at an international level.
IAPSS supports activity in three inter-linked areas:
- NETWORK: Foster stronger relationships among academics across FVEY countries and other global partners.
- INNOVATE: Facilitate the exchange of knowledge and methodological expertise across international collaborators, multilateral groups, and the wider public.
- SECURE: Contribute to the development of next generation social and behavioural scientists in the field of security and violence prevention.
The meeting
IAPSS held its inaugural meeting in March 2024 in London, UK. The 2-day meeting was attended by 62 academics and government officials who collectively represented 12 countries and 17 research networks. Together, delegates identified areas of shared interest and emerging challenge, mechanisms to support the community in sharing and advancing knowledge, and formed new connections at an international level.
At the meeting, delegates discussed the challenge areas that were identified in a pre-event survey, and ones that were not pre-identified but emerged as important additions from the discussions at the meeting.
Ten challenges were discussed across the two days. These reflected:
- Acute challenges: emerging and intensifying threats such as new and emerging technology, disinformation, youth radicalisation, and civil disorder.
- Chronic challenges: areas that have received long-standing attention such as thresholds, threat risk management, evaluation and terminology.
- Cross-cutting challenges: challenges that span both acute and chronic challenges, namely data and capacity building.
In this report, we summarise the key points that emerged around each challenge area and the questions that were identified for future research agendas to consider. What the report does not promise, is a review of available evidence in each challenge area. These reviews exist elsewhere and we reference some of these in the following sections.