Success in Forensic Science Research and Other Collaborative Projects: Meeting Your Partners’ Expectations

Abstract

Forensic science is increasingly used in civil and criminal investigations and court proceedings. Over the past decade there has been a marked increase in the number of large collaborative and interagency research projects looking at the effectiveness of forensic science. Whether these large inter- agency projects will be successful is based on two fundamentals: whether the research produces quality outputs and, more importantly, whether the outputs match the expectations of research partners and stakeholders. We discuss the importance of understanding what partners and stakeholders expect and need from projects in which they invest. We explored expectations in a large Australian project assessing ‘The Effectiveness of Forensic Science in the Criminal Justice System’. This collaboration is between two Australian police forces, the National Institute of Forensic Science, and three Australian and one European university. We found that the way stakeholders interpreted the title of the project influenced the direction they wanted the research to take and what outcomes/outputs they expected. We found five different research directions and outcomes/outputs expectations. We suggest that to avoid disappointment, stakeholders should voice their expectations and explicitly define their needs. Since expectations are rarely static, it makes sense to revisit expectations of stakeholders throughout projects.

Keywords:

• Forensic science research
• managing industry partner expectations
• project management

Acknowledgments

The Tasmanian Institute of Law Enforcement Studies (TILES) is based at the University of Tasmania (UTAS). The Institute conducts high quality empirical research for police and law enforcement practitioners and agencies. Researchers at TILES aim to produce results their clients want and need.

We acknowledge the support of the Australian Research Council (LP0882797); our industry partners, Victoria Police and Australian Capital Territory Policing; and the National Institute of Forensic Science Research for funding this collaborative research project. We also acknowledge support from the Australian Federal Police Forensic and Data Centres.

We kindly thank Robert Hayes for his comments on earlier drafts of this manuscript.

For further information about the project ‘The Effectiveness of Forensic Science in the Criminal Justice System’, please contact the lead CI, Associate Professor Roberta Julian ([email protected]), or visit the project webpage at http://www.utas.edu.au/tiles/research_projects/forensic_science_project.html