ENU Head of Law Professor Richard Whitecross secures RSE Award
Edinburgh Napier University Professor and Head of Law, Richard Whitecross, has been awarded the prestigious Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) Spring 2023 small research grant for his upcoming project: Domestic abuse and contact cases: understanding the barriers to civil legal aid for mothers.
Professor Whitecross has had an impressive academic and vocational career to date, having received 5 previous research grants between 2016 to 2021. This will be his 6th research grant.
Prof Whitecross completed his Masters in History in 1986, soon followed by an LLB, then becoming a Member of the Law Society of Scotland in 1992. He received his Phd in 2002, along with an RAI Sutasoma Award in 2001.
Professor Whitecross’s previous research grants include another RSE recognition in 2020/1, as well as carrying out an Edinburgh Napier Pilot Project from 2018 to 2019. He has also previously secured grants from the Scottish Government.
This current research, on the topic of legal aid within domestic abuse cases, will prove beneficial to a range of stakeholders, including the Scottish Government, Scottish Women’s Aid, Scottish Women’s Right Centre, and Rape Crisis Scotland, amongst others and reflects his role as deputy head of the Centre for Child and Family Law Policy Research at Edinburgh Napier University. Professor Whitecross notes that “recent research projects suggests that the many women contesting contact applications are paying for legal advice, even though they fall under the current civil legal aid threshold. This project seeks to explore and understand why this is happening”.
The RSE has provided funding from a pot of £617k to 33 “exceptional” (RSE 2023) research projects in which they state will be a “benefit to Scottish Society” (Anderson 2023), and the grant to Professor Whitecross will no doubt have a positive impact on women, children, and families.
Professor Whitecross will carry out his project over the course of 9 months, with ENU supporting some of the project costs by providing additional funding.
References
Anderson, A. RSE. 2023. RSE AWARDS OVER 617K IN RESEARCH FUNDING TO THE BENEFIT OF SCOTLAND’S SOCIETY. [Online]. Available at: RSE awards over 617K in research funding to the benefit of Scotland’s society – Royal Society of Edinburgh
Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE). (2023). RSE AWARDS OVER 617K IN RESEARCH FUNDING TO THE BENEFIT OF SCOTLAND’S SOCIETY. [Online]. Available at: RSE awards over 617K in research funding to the benefit of Scotland’s society – Royal Society of Edinburgh