Engaged research

Dr Graeme Horsman – Senior Lecturer in Digital Forensics, Cranfield Forensic Institute

The vast majority of crime involves a digital element, and the focus of this project was on Crime Scene Investigator (CSI) and first responder (FR) communities. As individuals that are often present during initial inquiry and evidence recovery phases of police investigations, interaction with evidence and the forensic process is critical.

The purpose of the project was to identify CSI/FR perceptions and confidences within their job roles with a specific focus on dealing with digital evidence.

The project sought to identify experiences, competencies and challenges in order to inform future training and support for SCI/FR professionals, and aid investigation policies and procedures in this key area of investigation and evidence collection.

The team engaged in participatory research with regional police forces, conducting focus groups and semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders in the CSI/FR community.

Ultimately, this project aimed to support those in the profession, to support more effective and reliable crime detection and investigation services, and to help improve case outcomes for those impacted by acts of crime.

Dr David Errickson, ACSFS, FHEA, ACIfA – Senior Lecturer in Archaeology/Anthropology, Cranfield Forensic Institute

The Cranfield Forensic Institute undertakes archaeological excavation in Warkton, Northamptonshire as part of the Forensic Archaeology MSc. This time, however, the team wanted to actively engage additional local volunteers by getting them to participate in collecting the data. This would be achieved by recruiting a team of ‘citizen scientists’ to excavate, record, clean, and document the archaeology along with Cranfield students. This work would help develop understanding of the historical timeline at Warkton and how it fits into the Roman and Medieval landscape across Northamptonshire.

Beyond the actual archaeological excavation, the project included a participation training workshop on artefact identification and processing. Here, volunteers would sort, document and archive artefacts, becoming familiar with their form and function and the postexcavation process. Volunteers gained legacy knowledge where they too could then use their learnings to upskill others.

In addition, the work supported participation with the wider public to come along and engage with the excavation. Finally, local talks, including one at the ‘Romans in Kettering’ history event were planned. This is a free event for the local population to participate in and engage with a series of talks on the Romans in the area.

Dr Peter Campbell – Lecturer in Cultural Heritage Under Threat, Cranfield Forensic Institute

At-risk marine resources, such as fisheries and underwater archaeology, offer sustainable economic development through fisheries and tourism, if properly managed. Assessing awareness of the risks to these resources requires participatory research, which is the focus of this project.

Examining the intersection of unseen seafloor resources, both natural and cultural, and the local communities whose livelihood rely upon them, the team used citizen science with the community of Ustica, Italy to co-create a map of at-risk underwater resources for sustainable use, a model which can be applied more broadly to other marine protected areas (MPA).

The marine protected area Isola di Ustica was Italy’s first MPA, founded in 1986 and covering 15,000 hectares. Since its inception, the MPA staff had noted climate change impact within the aquatic communities, as well as more direct impacts, such as illegal fishing and looting of archaeological sites. Working together with the marine protected area Isola di Ustica and Soprintendenza del Mare Regione Siciliana, this project identified at-risk resources, while raising awareness about threats to these resources, using a co-production methodology to benefit both researchers and the public.

A series of events were held, engaging with fishers, diving shop owners, marine biologists and archaeologists, students, and the community as whole.

The project sought to address UN Sustainable Development Goal 11 (Sustainable Communities) and 14 (Life Below Water) by raising awareness, understanding lived experiences and co-producing a list of key locations requiring protection or monitoring. This will be provided to the local authorities for integration into their protection strategy.

Peter Masters – Research Fellow, Cranfield Forensic Institute

The Battle of Barnet 1471 was an epic confrontation during the Wars of the Roses where the Earl of Warwick (Warwick the Kingmaker) was slain. The search for the exact location of the battlefield is one of the few of the Wars of the Roses that has never been found. Previous research was undertaken from 2015-2018 by Glenn Foard, University of Huddersfield, and the University of Southampton but found no evidence for its location.

The focus of this project was to involve the volunteers/local community at the Barnet Museum, as well as those from the local Hendon and District Archaeological Society (HADAS), to find the battlefield location.

Citizen scientists worked with researchers, looking at military tactics and techniques used during that historical period, examining the landscape, and reanalysing historical documents, investigating areas around Barnet that had not yet been searched in order to find the lost battlefield. The project helped educate on how to protect a very important site as well as promoting tourism.

Professor Ruben Sakrabani – Professor of Soil Chemistry, Centre for Soil, Agrifood and Biosciences

Whilst mineral fertilisers are essential to meet nearly 50% of global crop production, its production is energy intensive and causes close to 2% of global greenhouse gas emissions. With the price of mineral fertilisers increasing and the state of soil health decreasing, innovative solutions are needed.

Organo-mineral fertilisers (OMFs) are a new concept which combines organic feedstock (manure, crop residue, compost, digestate) with mineral fertilisers to produce a balanced product, either as pellets or granules. OMFs are important for improving soil health and adopting a circular economy approach to reuse valuable organic resources. Land degradation in Africa is common and OMF application is a timely opportunity in this context, however, OMF production is often restricted by logistical challenges including the transport of feedstocks from areas of production (markets, farms) to processing centres, inconsistency within feedstock availability and nature due to seasonality, and the presence of contaminants within the feedstock.

In this Participatory Research project, the team co-produced and co-created a programme, engaging with policy makers, farmers and industry on how to tackle the challenges related to OMF production by understanding their experiences and requirements, as well as identifying data and logistical challenges so that OMFs can become easily implemented in practice.

At the Africa Fertilizer and Soil Health (AFSH) Summit at the Kenyatta International Convention Center (KICC), the team ran participatory activities to identify sources of data to gather information on locations, volume and quality of organic feedstock being generated in Kenya, Ethiopia, South Africa and Ghana.

The project’s objective was to integrate data to formulate a potential ‘Hub and Spoke’ model to formulate OMFs: overcoming challenges with road networks and transportation by creating hubs where organic feedstock could be gathered and processed to formulate OMF, and ‘spoke’ locations where OMFs can be potentially transported for application in agriculture. It is hoped the ‘Hub’ will act as a key site where organic feedstock will be processed including potentially drying and adding of mineral fertilisers, followed by pelletising or granulation.

Dr Zimu Xu – Lecturer in Entrepreneurship, Bettany Centre for Entrepreneurship

This project aimed to provide a deep, evolving understanding of the challenges, needs and opportunities faced by underrepresented communities within entrepreneurial ecosystems. The research had a particular focus on three groups, women, ethnic minorities and immigrant entrepreneurs. The study was designed to be longitudinal, capturing the dynamic interplay between these entrepreneurs and their environment over time, shedding light on systemic changes, individual growth, and the effectiveness of support structures.

The seed fund enabled the initial pilot phase of the project, covering a first wave of participatory interviews.

By targeting three groups, the team worked to identify common barriers and challenges, as well as producing rich insights into the functioning and dynamics of inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystems and the experiences of those entrepreneurs within them. Thus, the research aimed to provide insights into how these ecosystems can be fostered and evolved to be more inclusive and supportive of diverse entrepreneurs.

The objectives were to develop a baseline understanding of experiences, challenges, opportunities and aspirations, barriers and enablers, at systemic, social and individual level.

Through their participatory approach, the researchers aimed to co-create knowledge that could generate actionable insights and strategies that promote inclusivity, inform policymakers, and to support organizations, and entrepreneurial communities about effective ways to support inclusivity.

The researchers also evaluated the participatory interviews activities for their effectiveness in engaging the targeted entrepreneurs and capturing their experiences, in order to contribute to the project itself but also inform future development and funding in this area of research.

Dr Edgar Jimenez Perez, FHEA – Senior Lecturer in Air Transport Management, Centre for Air Transport Management

Airport strategic planning deals with the long-term decisions affecting how and when infrastructure is developed to cope with demand for air transport. However, it is subject to substantial uncertainty about both the level and the characteristics of that demand (i.e. the type of aircraft it will use, the processes and technologies that will dominate in the future, the destinations that will be served, the demographics of the travellers, and the corresponding regulations and business practices).

Airports are complex socio-technical spaces and in this project, researchers were looking at how incorporating flexibility in engineering systems could be a way to respond to such levels of uncertainty.

In other recent research they had proposed a new methodology to support design decisions by assessing the economic value of incorporating flexibility into the design and on the operations and business management of airport facilities. The seed fund enabled them to develop an uptake acceleration workshop, bringing together practitioners and researchers around specific considerations for flexible facility requirements in airport strategic planning.

Airport planning consultancies and large airport operators were engaged in the workshop including cross-disciplinary teams with expertise from engineering, architecture, management, urban planning, economic and other social sciences, engaging a diverse, cross-disciplinary group to tackle the research objective.

Dr Daniel Evans, Lecturer in Soil Formation – Centre for Soil, Agrifood and Biosciences

With 1/3 of soils degraded globally, and demands on soils only growing, engaging and informing the public about the importance of soils is essential if we are to safeguard these indispensable resources for future generations.

Pollution of air or water tends to be more noticeable, or hold more awareness among the public, but many people are not aware of the processes that occur in soils and the essential benefits human populations derive from them.

This project utilised citizen science and lived experience to exchange knowledge with the public about soils and their critical role in the livelihoods, occupations, and routines of individuals.

The project focused on developing an interactive, permanent and long-lasting public engagement product in the form of a ‘listening bench’. Listening benches are conventional outdoor benches with an inbuilt speaker system (using solar-powered batteries) that can play a sequence of audio tracks and can be installed at sites of public interest or along walking trails to convey information about the local area.

The team aimed to engage and inspire a broad range of public individuals, including young people, with recent soils research through a quiz and research summaries, as well as identifying and comparing public perceptions of soil through the bench’s survey tool.