Dr Natasha Mulvihill, Senior Lecturer in Criminology in the School for Policy Studies, will head a project looking at the nature, extent and internal administrative responses to sexual misconduct and abuse perpetrated against adults by professionals.
Focusing on police, doctors, politicians, clergy, lawyers and the military, she will draw on international evidence and practice to assess how and to what extent professionals sexually offend, and to review the internal processes which identify and manage these complaints. Analysing such data on this scale will be a UK first and, across such diverse professions, an international first.
Dr Mulvihill said: “Certain professions hold significant public authority or esteem, and sexual misconduct and abuse are a profound breach of that trust. Professional regulatory responses to sexual misconduct are often overlooked, yet critical given low victim confidence in the criminal justice system. This project will examine whether such mechanisms administratively segregate and exonerate professional perpetrators or can offer a route to effective accountability and sanction.”
408 researchers have won this year’s European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grants. The funding is worth in total €636 million and part of the Horizon Europe programme. It will help excellent younger scientists, who have two to seven years’ experience after their PhDs, to launch their own projects, form their teams and pursue their most promising ideas.
The University of Bristol is placed joint second in the UK in terms of the number of Advanced Grants awarded from the 2022 call. The grants will help the six University awardees undertake research on varied and valuable areas as diverse as understanding how Europe’s forests are responding to climate change, how our brains learn and establishing the 3D nature of exoplanets.
Mariya Gabriel, European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, said: “We are proud that we are empowering younger researchers to follow their curiosity. These new ERC laureates bring a remarkable wealth of scientific ideas, they will certainly further our knowledge and some already have practical applications in sight. I wish them all the best of luck with their explorations.”
President of the European Research Council, Professor Maria Leptin, said: “It is a pleasure to see this new group of bright minds at the start of their careers, set to take their research to new heights. I cannot emphasise enough that Europe as a whole - both at national and at EU level - has to continue to back and empower its promising talent. We must encourage young researchers who are led by sheer curiosity to go after their most ambitious scientific ideas. Investing in them and their frontier research is investing in our future.”