TRUST: Tracing Risk and Uncertainty in Security Technologies
ESRC funded project under the ‘Science and Security’ theme. March 2013-August 2014: Total Grant £235,568
The research is inter-disciplinary and collaborative between social scientists and engineers. It studies the HANDHOLD project: an integrated portable Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and Explosive (CBRNE) detection device intended for application, in the first instance, by security enforcers at national borders. HANDHOLD includes 9 partners (engineering companies, academics, and end-users) from 5 EU countries and addresses different national contexts, different institutional priorities and different cultural conceptions of security and S&T. Our research will assess how this complexity affects scientific practices and outcomes, particularly as it relates to the management of risk and uncertainty, and the potential for failure. It does so in relation to a technology addressing issues in the top tier of national security priorities.