Leadership Team

About Us

The Leadership team is made up of the Director, 6 Associate Directors and the Knowledge Exchange and Business Manager.

Profiles of the members of the Leadership Team are presented below.

Director of SIPR

Dr Andrew Wooff

Dr Andrew Wooff is Director of the Scottish Institute for Policing Research (SIPR) and Associate Professor of Criminology at Edinburgh Napier University, where he also leads the Social Sciences subject group.

His research explores the everyday realities of policing, with particular interests in rural policing, police custody, vulnerability, volunteering in policing, and partnership working. He has published widely across criminology and policing journals and has led a range of projects with policing and community partners.

Andrew is committed to fostering collaboration between academics, practitioners, and policy-makers, ensuring that high-quality research supports the development of evidence-based policing in Scotland and beyond.

Head of Operations

Monica Craig,
School of Social Sciences,
Edinburgh Napier University.

Monica Craig joined the SIPR team in July 2019 from the Australian National University where she was the Manager of the College of Arts and Social Sciences Research Office.

In addition to her undergraduate study in Psychology, Monica is a graduate of the University of Edinburgh where she received a Masters in Criminology and Criminal Justice.

Monica has worked across a variety of sectors including private research consultancy, NGOs, and the Scottish Government’s Justice Analytical Services. She has spent the last eight years in Australia where, in addition to her work with the ANU, she also worked with the Australian Commonwealth Department of Social Services and with the Australian Institute of Criminology where she managed the National Deaths in Custody and National Police Custody programs.

Evidence and Investigation Network

Dr Penny Woolnough,
Abertay University.

I am a Reader in Forensic and Investigative Psychology and Associate Director of the Scottish Institute for Policing Research with specific responsibility for the Evidence and Investigation Network.

With a former police officer colleague I pioneered the development of behavioural profiling of missing persons and my research findings are used by all UK police forces, Search and Rescue Teams, HM Coastguard and allied international agencies.

As an HCPC Registered Forensic Psychologist I have provided expert advice/operational support to over 100 high profile missing person cases around the world. I train Senior Investigating Officers and have worked with the Scottish Government to develop the first National Framework in Scotland for Missing Persons.

Organisational Development Network

Professor Kirsteen Grant,
Network Lead

Kirsteen is Professor of Human Resource Management at Edinburgh Napier University. Her research interests incorporate professional, responsible, and extreme work; future of work; younger workers; and talent management. She has published widely on a variety of work and employment issues, and between 2019-2021 edited the Journal of Management Development. She now serves on multiple editorial, advisory, and review boards.

Kirsteen draws on complementary backgrounds in academia and organisational practice. Her practitioner experience encompassed senior leadership roles geared around leading and supporting complex organisational change, and she has worked extensively in the areas of professional development, leadership, and learning and talent development. Kirsteen is a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA), and Certified Management and Business Educator (CMBE).

Police Community Network

Dr Niall Hamilton Smith
Network Lead

Niall Hamilton-Smith is a senior lecturer in criminology at the University of Stirling and a member of the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research. Niall has a background in applied policing research, working as a researcher in the Home Office between 1999 and 2007, notably as a senior researcher in the Organised Crime Research section working on projects related to organised immigration crime.

Since moving to Scotland, Niall has been involved in a variety of policing projects, including: collaborative work to develop the Scottish organised crime mapping process; a project to improve the measurement of police activities to tackle organised crime; research looking at public sector procurement and infiltration by organised crime; and a pilot project examining the availability and usefulness of community intelligence.

Digital Policing and Technological Harms

Dr Shane Horgan
Network Lead

Shane joined Edinburgh Napier University as a Lecturer in Criminology in August 2019. Shane is currently the program leader for the BSc in Policing and Criminology, and teach on the topics of; policing and security, cybercrime and cybersecurity, criminological theory, online research methods, criminal justice, and surveillance.

Shane is an affiliate of the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research and the Scottish Institute of Policing Research, and also convenes the School of Applied Science Research integrity Committee.

Shane’s research interests include the the sociological study of cybercrime and cybersecurity, and police responses. In particular, their work has explored how people and organisations make sense of cybercrime and enact cybersecurity behaviours and policies in their routine everyday lives and operations. Shane is in interested in further developing criminological and sociological perspectives on cybersecurity, the policing of cybercrime, and novel ways ICT is deployed in the governance of security.

Shane is currently accepting doctoral candidates whose research relates to cybercrime and online harm, the sociological dimensions of cybersecurity and privacy, and the impact of new technologies on crime, policing, and criminal justice.