Leverhulme Research Centre for Forensic Science

LRCFS is a ten-year £10 Million project with the remit to disrupt positively the current forensic science ecosystem. We set aside conventional siloed ways of thinking, embrace new opportunities from across the broad academic research and industry landscape and work with practitioners from the crime scene to the court room to explore new ways of resolving old challenges and develop future opportunities. We drive innovation that enables reliable science to be used in the delivery of justice.

The Centre has a vibrant, dynamic and agile team blending, public engagement, statistics, natural sciences, social sciences and legal domains together to solve real world problems.

We work with and collaborate with partners from:  

• law enforcement 
• crime scene investigation
• forensic science
• legal practice
• the judiciary
• scientists
• social scientists
• artists
• innovators
• entrepreneurs
• the general public

Our research pillars

Our research links across five thematic pillars asking bold questions about the robustness of the science used in the investigation of crime scenes, laboratory analysis and the presentation of scientific evidence within the courts.

Crime Scene Research Facility

In 2020 we took control of our new crime scene research facility in the heart of the University Campus enabling our research to move from the laboratory into a ‘real world' test facility. We will be working with practitioners, innovators and industry to use this facility to test emergent technologies and develop research as well as for practitioner training and competency testing.