University of Manchester to lead accelerated research project tackling violence against women and girls

An interdisciplinary research team at The University of Manchester have been awarded £625,000 to accelerate the UK’s efforts to prevent and respond to violence against women and girls (VAWG).

Content warning: References to sexual violence, domestic abuse, sexual harassment and homicide.

Violence against women and girls (VAWG) remains a widespread and underreported issue across the UK. According to official statistics, more than 200,000 sexual offences were recorded by UK police in England and Wales in 2024/25, and 2.2 million women aged 16+ experienced domestic abuse in the year ending March 2025.

In response to this crisis, RISE – a new project hosted by SPRITE+, SALIENT and NSEC – has been awarded £625,000 from UKRI’s R&D Missions Accelerator Programme to accelerate national efforts to prevent and respond to VAWG. Bringing together leading researchers, practitioners and policymakers, RISE will feed in to the delivery of the UK Government’s Safer Streets Mission and recent cross-government strategy which aim to halve VAWG within a decade.

The project will consist of four team‑led research projects covering primary prevention (working with men and boys), women’s safety in public spaces, management of domestic abuse perpetrators and child-parent homicides. RISE will also provide grant funding of up to £50,000 to enable researchers and practitioners across policing, third sector and policymaking to collaborate and pilot new approaches.

RISE draws on the expertise of Professor Rose Broad and Dr Caroline Miles, whose influential research on abuse of women runners was recently cited in Parliament, Professor David Gadd, a leading authority on domestic abuse and masculinities, and Dr Reka Solymosi, co‑director of M‑PACE and specialist in crime data analysis.

The project is further strengthened by NSEC and SALIENT Principal Investigator Dr Richard Kirkham, who will support the team in securing complex multi‑agency research data, and Professor Mark Elliot, privacy expert and SPRITE+ director, who will lead stakeholder engagement and lead an in-depth evidence review of primary prevention strategies.

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Gender‑based violence and abuse remains a reality for far too many people at home, in public and increasingly online. Through the RISE project we’re addressing a range of VAWG issues and looking at the many ways violence and abuse show up in people’s lives, recognising that these harms don’t look the same for everyone.
Our four core projects, along with the external projects we’re funding with UKRI, will help us tackle these challenges from different directions, in alignment with the Government’s VAWG Strategy and Safer Streets Mission. We want our work to reach the practitioners and policymakers working in this area, and most importantly, make a difference to those impacted by gender-based violence and abuse.

Dr Rose Broad, The University of Manchester

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More information on RISE

Advice and support

National Domestic Abuse Helpline (England): 0808 2000 247
Rape & Sexual Abuse Support Line (England and Wales): 0808 500 2222
Domestic and Sexual Abuse Helpline (Northern Ireland): 0808 802 1414
Domestic Abuse and Forced Marriage Helpline (Scotland): 0800 027 1234

In an emergency call 999. If it’s unsafe to speak and you call from a mobile, press 55 and you will be transferred to a police call handler trained to deal with ‘silent calls’.