Europol and the Centre of Excellence in Terrorism, Resilience, Intelligence and Organised Crime Research (CENTRIC) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). CENTRIC is a multi-disciplinary and end-user focused centre of excellence, located within Sheffield Hallam University, U.K. The agreement formalises a long-standing partnership and encourages ongoing effective collaboration, combining relevant expertise and state-of-the-art technology.
The MoU between Europol and CENTRIC will assist law enforcement in protecting society and citizens through joint activities, such as applied research and tool development to improve capabilities of law enforcement in reacting, mitigating and recovering from criminal threats, including cybercrime and terrorism. Other joint activities will include serious gaming for training and capacity-building for police officers. Europol and CENTRIC have previously worked together on a number of initiatives and research projects, including the development of a cryptocurrency investigation game in 2019.
In October 2019, Europol launched CRYPTOPOL, the first cryptocurrency-tracing training game of its kind. Developed and co-created with CENTRIC, CRYPTOPOL simulates a cryptocurrency investigation, emphasising hands-on practice using real-life scenarios. The game is available to all law enforcement cryptocurrency investigators around the world, who can request access to the game from Europol. There are ongoing efforts with CENTRIC to apply this concept to capacity building efforts in other crime areas as well.
CENTRIC and Europol are also working together on several projects including CENTRIC’s Security Research Rapid Response to COVID19 platform.
