The project team presented at The Chartered Society of Forensic Sciences webinar on 9th October 2024. Prof. Lara Frumkin spoke on behalf of the team as part of a series of talks on UKRI forensic science sandpit funded projects.

She spoke about the inception of the project and what each team member [link to our team page] contributes to this important work. In explaining the background of the project, Lara evidenced how the work that is being undertaken will address distrust and trust of forensic science evidence by the public. Early findings from two of the project's multiple data collection methods were presented.  First, the survey of members of the public identify that whilst forensic science is generally trusted, people are not aware of what evidence is scientifically supported and what has been debunked.  The project will be further exploring this line of inquiry.  Second, Lara presented some early findings from interviews held with forensic science stakeholders.  These show that stakeholders are aware of the disconnect between their work and the public's understanding of forensic sciences processes and resources, all of which impact on trust in the evidence and criminal justice's use of it. The stakeholders reported limited awareness of how marginalised user groups perceived forensic science evidence and Lara concluded the talk by discussing the project's next steps which are to go out to those groups for interactive data collection sessions.

Other webinar speakers were Andrew Stafford from UKRI, Dr. Iain Macaulay for the single-cell and single molecule sequencing for DNA evidence recovery and Dr. Mark Warner for the towards a smart digital forensic advisor to support first responders with at-scene triage of digital evidence projects.