Two School of Law academics secure funding for collaborative awards
Dr Ali Malik and Dr Matt Tidmarsh have each been successful in securing the White Rose Doctoral Training Partnership (WRDTP) Collaborative Award 26/27.
The WRDTP Collaborative Awards invite supervisors of future doctoral students to submit proposals for cutting-edge research projects that are underpinned by strong links with a non-academic partner.
Dr Ali Malik
Dr Malik was successful within the Security, Conflict and Justice pathway with his project: ‘Joined-up approaches to local emergency planning, preparedness, response and recovery’. His collaborative partner will be the London Resilience Unit, Greater London Authority. His second supervisor will be Professor Adam Crawford.
Dr Malik's project aims to advance understanding of the roles and responsibilities of multiagency actors involved in emergency planning, response and recovery.
In light of the increasingly frequent and severe climate related emergencies, and lessons from tragedies such as the Grenfell Tower fire, the project will examine how multiagency partners working within polycentric governance arrangements navigate organisational cultures, knowledge hierarchies and statutory duties in the delivery of effective emergency management.
He says:
I am delighted to welcome the London Resilience Unit as a collaborating partner for this award. LRU’s position at the centre of one of the most complex urban environments and resilience systems in the country enables a richer and more grounded understanding of what effective multiagency governance looks like in practice.
The partnership will ensure that the findings from this project will not only be academically significant but also directly relevant to practitioners and policymakers who are working to build safer and more resilient communities.
Dr Matt Tidmarsh
Dr Tidmarsh was successful within the Security, Conflict and Justice pathway, with his project: ‘The Role of Probation in the Expansion of Electronic Monitoring: Organisational, Cultural, and Supervisory Implications’. His collaborative partner will be HM Inspectorate of Probation. The project will be co-supervised by Dr Laura Bainbridge.
Dr Tidmarsh’s project’s overarching aim is to investigate probation’s role in the expansion of electronic monitoring, in the wake of changes outlined in the Sentencing Bill 2025. It speaks to a pressing need for research on probation’s role in implementing the expansion of electronic monitoring. More broadly, the project will contribute to debates on multi-agency relationships and the growing role of technology in criminal justice.
He says:
It is a privilege to be working with HM Inspectorate of Probation on this important research. This collaboration will provide the successful candidate with an exceptional opportunity to bridge academic and applied research on electronic monitoring and probation practice. HM Inspectorate of Probation’s involvement in the project will ensure findings are informed by, and can feed into, ongoing debates about probation performance, workforce capacity, and technology in supervision.
Professor Subhajit Basu and Dr David Pearce, Directors of PGR Studies, say:
We are delighted to have secured two of the nine WRDTP Collaborative Awards for 2026/27. Dr Malik’s and Dr Tidmarsh’s projects exemplify the School’s commitment to socially responsible research with real-world partners, and to doctoral work that can inform practice as well as scholarship. This continues a strong run of success – indeed, this is Dr Tidmarsh’s third award – and it speaks to a research culture that actively supports colleagues and PhD researchers to develop competitive, high-quality proposals.
Both Dr Malik and Dr Tidmarsh are members of the Centre for Criminal Justice Studies. Dr Malik can be found on LinkedIn here and on Bluesky @dralimalik.bsky.social.
