Dear colleagues,
Building on last week’s exciting update about our successful UKRI funded Policing-Academic Centre of Excellence bid I am writing with an important SIPR update which I informed the SIPR Board of Governance about yesterday.
Following much reflection, I have taken the difficult decision to step down from my role as SIPR Director. Although I continue to enjoy the role very much, sadly, I have come to the conclusion that it is time to hand the opportunity over to someone else, after seven years in post. As our current collaboration agreement is a three year agreement (rather than the five we had previously), I have decided it would be sensible to have a new Director in place, by the end of this summer, so they have time to embed themselves in the role and execute plans under the current funding agreement before it is time to begin making preparations towards the next funding phase. I believe this to be the best decision for SIPR and the new Director.
Please find an advert for the role of SIPR Director here. Further details are provided in the attachment and the deadline for applications is the 2nd of June. This has been developed by myself, Monica and Gary Hutchison, as the Board of Governance (BoG) Chair. We are very grateful to the BoG members who have agreed to support the recruitment process, particularly Gill Imery who will Chair the panel on behalf of the Board, to ensure there is a fair recruitment process in place.
Looking back, I think we can be proud of what we have collectively achieved over the last seven years of SIPR. We have developed a strategic plan and strategic research themes, introduced an annual planning process, secured new collaboration agreements (2019 and 2024), revised our website and annual report, grew our core staffing base, awarded numerous SIPR research grants and ran countless KE events (pivoting online during covid) and international conferences, supported impactful research and introduced Impact Awards, developed various new collaborations locally and internationally, introduced a Responsive Research Fund, an ECR grant scheme, a KE fund and a Leverage fund, and supported the generation of external funding culminating in the recent PACE award.
I would like to thank SIPR members, SPOCs, core SIPR staff, particularly Monica Craig and the Associate Directors, policing partners and Executive Committee and BoG members for their support in making all of this happen. We have already delivered a lot this year and shared various grant calls and events with you. Rest assured that I will continue to work hard to deliver on this year’s SIPR plans, until the new Director is in place. I look forward to seeing you at the upcoming SIPR conference or another occasion soon enough.
I will not be going far and look forward to working with you and the new SIPR Director in my continuing role at Edinburgh Napier University and as Lead for the new UKRI funded Scottish Policing Academic Centre of Excellence.
Thank you for your support and engagement,
Liz
Professor Elizabeth Aston
Director, Scottish Institute for Policing Research
Professor of Criminology, Edinburgh Napier University
