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Natural Traces in forensic investigations - how the analysis of non-human evidence can solve crime

Descrizione del progetto

Colmare una lacuna nella formazione pratica in materia di scienza forense

Nel mondo della scienza forense, ogni scena del crimine racconta una storia unica caratterizzata spesso dalla discreta presenza di tracce biologiche non umane; peli di animali domestici, polline, organismi del suolo e DNA ambientale sono solo alcuni esempi di questi indizi sfuggenti. Nell'UE, tuttavia, le competenze necessarie per analizzare e utilizzare efficacemente queste tracce naturali non vengono impartite a livello di formazione post-laurea. Con il sostegno del programma di azioni Marie Skłodowska-Curie, il progetto Natural Traces affronterà questa lacuna didattica in ambito di scienza forense consentendo a 10 dottorandi di ricevere una formazione completa di tipo pratico in tal campo. La formazione, che sarà facilitata da partner accademici e non, accademie di polizia e laboratori, si concentrerà sull'integrazione delle prove biologiche in un quadro bayesiano.

Obiettivo

Literally any crime scene contains animal, plant, soil, microbial or environmental traces. Examples include pet hairs or saliva, pollen and algae, soil and soil organisms like bacteria or nematodes, fungal spores, insects, and environmental traces in the form of environmental DNA of any origin. Such biological traces can be found mainly on living people (suspects, victims), on objects like cars or weapons, and on bodies not just on the surface but also in their surroundings like single or mass graves, or an aquatic environment.
In the EU, there is a lack of training opportunities in applied topics of forensic science at postgraduate level, such as the qualitative and quantitative analysis of specifically such non-human biological traces. While many EU countries have forensic laboratories that also such traces, a much broader, integrated knowledge base is needed, built on close cooperation between basic research in academia and analysis and application in casework by forensic specialists. Natural Traces aims to optimise the procedures for taking and analysing non-human traces in order to meet the ever-increasing demands for identifying suspects and victims and to link traces to different places, times or courses of action. The results based on this need a statistical robustness that will also hold up in the courtroom under cross-examination.
The proposal aims for 10 PhD students with a background in life sciences. They will build their knowledge and experience in practical forensics in training schools provided by academic, non-academic partners, and police academies or laboratories. The training embeds biological evidence in a Bayesian framework, making it universally comparable with all other forms of evidence, by applying novel probabilistic approaches to extract forensic useful information from metadata. It is truly cross-sectoral, with secondments at end-users of the training (e.g. police forces) and joint supervision by PIs from different countries.

Coordinatore

JOHANN WOLFGANG GOETHE-UNIVERSITAET FRANKFURT AM MAIN
Contribution nette de l'UE
€ 260 539,20
Indirizzo
THEODOR W ADORNO PLATZ 1
60323 Frankfurt Am Main
Germania

Mostra sulla mappa

Regione
Hessen Darmstadt Frankfurt am Main, Kreisfreie Stadt
Tipo di attività
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Collegamenti
Costo totale
Nessun dato

Partecipanti (9)

Partner (14)