The AHRC, ESRC, EPSRC and NSAC have allocated £2 million to co-fund projects emerging from the Countering Terrorism in Crowded Places Ideas Factory.
The concept of the Ideas Factory is to organise interactive workshops (sand-pits) on particular topics, involving 20-30 participants. The focus for this sand-pit is to explore long-term ideas for understanding and deterring terrorist behaviour; designing and developing technologies and environments to combat the devastating impact of terrorist attacks in public places. There are several areas where the arts and humanities could bring unique perspectives to this area, for example, the ethical and legal implications of the technologies used to counter terrorism, corss-cultural issues regarding norms of behaviours and the impact of architecture and design on the safety of public places.
Three projects are receiving funding as a result of the Ideas Factory. Research is expected to begin later this year.
The EPSRC is leading on the administration of this scheme and more information can be fund on the EPSRC website.