OXFORD Brookes University is among eight projects that have been selected to study new security threats that are facing the UK.

The centre for research and evidence on security threats [CREST] has committed £900,000 to launch the various projects which are each aimed at researching, understanding and mitigating new security threats facing the country.

Each project promises to deliver theoretical innovations that will make a practical difference to the work of the security and intelligence agencies.

Oxford Brookes University’s Organisational Studies Professor Juliette Koning will launch the study titled ‘imaginative scenario planning for law enforcement organisations’.

She said of the project: “Scenario planning is a tool for organisations to anticipate unpredictable futures but it is not widely practised in law enforcement organisations, since they tend to focus on short term operational and tactical planning.”

Fellow Professor Math Noortmann added: “This project aims to identify the potential and competence for effective scenario planning practices by law enforcement organisations and improve their capability to envisage otherwise unimagined scenarios in the fields of security.”

CREST director, Professor Paul Taylor said: “We continue to be impressed by the outstanding quality of responses to our call. The successful applicants promise to deliver theoretical innovation that will make a real difference to the work of the security and intelligence agencies. I am looking forward to working with them.”

The project will begin later this summer and the study will be in partnership with Utrecht University in the Netherlands.