€10 million ERC grant to investigate coercive interrogation practices awarded to Trinity researcher and colleagues

Posted on: 06 November 2025

An international, interdisciplinary team of researchers, including Trinity’s Shane O'Mara and colleagues from Dublin City University, De Montfort University and Tilburg University, has secured a €10 million European Research Council (ERC) grant to investigate coercive and abusive interrogation practices.

Around the world, coercive and abusive interrogation practices—from intimidation and psychological pressure to denial of rights and physical force—remain widespread. These methods violate human rights, produce unreliable information, and cause serious harm to individuals and justice systems alike.

Corresponding Principal Investigator Prof. Shane O’Mara, from Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience and Trinity’s School of Psychology, and co-Principal Investigators Prof. Yvonne Daly, Dublin City University; Prof. Dave Walsh, De Montfort University; and Dr Bennett Kleinberg, Tilburg University; have been awarded funding of €10,403,517 for the six-year project.

Entitled ‘JUSTICE: Joining Unique Strategies Together For Interrogative Coercion Elimination’, the project will bring together experts from law, psychology, neuroscience, and data science to find out why coercive practices take hold and how to replace them with humane, effective interviewing. JUSTICE aims to protect rights, get reliable information, and strengthen public trust.

The JUSTICE team are among 66 research teams to have been awarded Synergy grants announced by the ERC today [November 6^th]. A total of 712 proposals were submitted to this call.

ERC Synergy awards foster collaboration between outstanding researchers, enabling them to combine their expertise, knowledge and resources to push the boundaries of scientific discovery. This funding is part of the EU’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme.

Bennett Kleinberg, Tilburg University; Yvonne Daly, Dublin City University; Shane O’Mara, Trinity; and Dave Walsh, De Montfort University. 

Shane O’Mara, Professor of Experimental Brain Research, School of Psychology and Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience, said: “The JUSTICE project is about moving from confession-seeking to truth-seeking. By combining law, psychology, neuroscience and data science, we’ll attempt to pinpoint when and why coercion creeps into interviews, and devise practical ways to prevent it. Our project goal is humane, reliable interviewing that protects the innocent, supports victims, and strengthens public trust in justice.”

Yvonne Daly, Professor of Criminal Law and Evidence, Dublin City University, explained: “All four of us are truly excited at the prospect of bringing our knowledge, expertise and experience from our home disciplines together to tackle this serious societal issue through the JUSTICE project. We've already learned so much from one another in devising our cross-disciplinary work programme and look forward to growing a strong team to undertake this ambitious research, with the support of the ERC Synergy award.”

Dave Walsh, Professor in Criminal Investigation, De Montfort University, UK, added: “This Synergy grant will support innovative research which will make a real and positive difference to lives right around the globe, through achieving meaningful criminal justice. JUSTICE is a ground-breaking and ambitious project that will scientifically expose the fallacy of poor investigative practices and highlight the benefits of effective policing methods and systems, which are those that follow established ethical values, international legal norms and human rights and which resolve criminal cases using fair and effective, evidence-based means.”

Bennett Kleinberg, Associate Professor in Behavioural Data Science, Tilburg University, Netherlands, said: “This grant enables us to pursue truly cross-disciplinary and ambitious research that would not otherwise be possible. Our project addresses a global, urgent and complex challenge: building the evidence base and driving change towards investigative interviewing practices that are effective, evidence-based, and fully compliant with human rights.”

Dr Linda Doyle, Provost of Trinity, commented: “I congratulate Prof. O’Mara and his colleagues on this outstanding achievement.

“The grim reality is that we live in a world where deeply troubling practices such as coercive interrogation exist within justice systems. Shane’s leadership of this ERC Synergy Grant will bring together world-leading researchers across disciplines to address this problem head-on.

“Trinity’s new strategic plan commits us to being a university that challenges and serves society and this JUSTICE project is a fantastic example of how we challenge society by bringing together evidence-based approaches from law, psychology and data science to effect real-world change.”

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