NSF grant supports planning for research to disrupt human trafficking

^{The Human-Centered Action Research to Disrupt Trafficking team converges social sciences, health sciences, and computational modeling with lived experience expertise from survivors of trafficking.}

The Human-Centered Action Research to Disrupt Trafficking (HART) team received a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to support the planning of a research agenda aimed at disrupting human trafficking.

The HART team uses a novel scientific approach by converging social sciences, health sciences, and computational modeling with lived experience expertise from survivors of trafficking and other key stakeholders.

“What the field needs is large-scale and nuanced research on the interconnections between individuals, trafficking operations, the wide range of commercial sex market segments and labor markets, community contexts, and root causes,” says Associate Professor Lauren Martin, PhD, who’s been conducting community engaged and participatory action research on sex trading, human trafficking, and community wellbeing to illuminate real-world implications, policy, prevention, and community health since 2005.

Research thrusts focus on complex social, legal, economic, and human rights challenges

The planning includes a series of interactive remote meetings culminating in an in-person meeting in May. The results of the planning process will be the development of shared values and research philosophy, identification of key human trafficking research thrusts, and professional research connections among a wide range of experts to address those thrusts that focus on the complex social, legal, economic, and human rights challenges of human trafficking.

“The transdisciplinary team has a national scope with expertise to capture the realities and nuances of a broad range of trafficking contexts ethically and accurately and to translate that research to practice,” says Martin.

The one-year planning grant allows the HART team to convene experts from across academia, with lived experience, and working in the field to develop a new research agenda. The planning grant is funded by the NSF Centers for Research and Innovation in Science, the Environment and Society (CRISES) program.

The objective of the CRISES program is to “support interdisciplinary research to create evidence-based solutions that strengthen human resilience, security and quality of life by addressing seemingly intractable challenges that confront society,” which aligns with the HART research team’s focus. While the federal government announced in March that the CRISES program was archived, meaning it’s no longer accepting proposals, the HART team expects the workshop will inspire action-focused and community-driven research to disrupt human trafficking from the ground up.