British Academy and UK’s Department for International Development support new research to tackle modern slavery, human trafficking and child labour

The British Academy is pleased to announce the successful applicants to a new research funding programme on tackling modern slavery, human trafficking and child labour in modern business.

Funded by the Department for International Development (DfID), the British Academy will implement this programme to support eight research projects in the UK and overseas, aiming to investigate the challenges of modern slavery, human trafficking and child labour in global supply chains and their implications for developing countries.

The research projects will produce policy-relevant findings geared towards addressing UN Sustainable Development Goal 8.7. SDG 8.7 calls on the international community to ‘take immediate and effective measures to eradicate forced labour, end modern slavery and human trafficking and secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour” by 2025.

Many of the world’s 45 million people enslaved in the world, and the 75 million children employed in hazardous work, can be found within global supply chains. According to the International Labour Organisation, forced labour generates over $150 billion in illegal profits every year.

Welcoming this cohort of researchers, Professor Ash Amin, Foreign Secretary and Vice-President of the British Academy, said:

“Research in the humanities and social sciences has a crucial role to play in exposing and helping to rectify the scourge of modern slavery, human trafficking and child labour.

Only by collaborating across disciplines and by forging global partnerships can we address these practices, which blight human lives, fracture communities and damage the potential of economies worldwide.”

The awardees are:

• Dr Alex Balch, Senior Lecturer in Politics, University of Liverpool - Clothes, Chocolate and Children: Realising the Transparency Dividend


• Professor Andrew Crane, Professor of Business and Society; Director of the Centre for Business, Organisations and Society, University of Bath - Combatting Modern Slavery Through Business Leadership at the Bottom of the Supply Chain


• Dr Priya Deshingkar, Senior Research Fellow, University of Sussex - Brokered Migration for Domestic Work and Construction Work in Ghana and Myanmar: Examining the Relevance of the Slavery and Trafficking Discourse


• Dr Katharine Jones, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations, Coventry University - Learning Lessons in Tackling Slavery and Human Trafficking in Seafood Supply Chains: Applying Solutions for UK and Other Businesses Sourcing from Indonesia


• Professor Julia O'Connell Davidson, Professor of Social Research, University of Bristol - Revisiting Child Sex Tourism, Rethinking Business Responses


• Dr Elena Shih, Assistant Professor, Centre for the Study of Slavery and Justice, Brown University - ‘Worker Voice’ as a Means to Strengthen Remediation and Due Diligence, Identify Labour Risks, and Go Beyond Social Auditing: a Critical Analysis of Existing Models in Asia and Latin America


• Dr Alex Trautrims, Lecturer in Supply Chain and Operations Management, University of Nottingham - The Interaction of Law and Supply Chain Management in Cross-Judicial Supply Chains: Supply Chain Effectiveness of Modern Slavery Legislation


• Dr Hinrich Voss, Associate Professor of International Business, University of Leeds - Pulling a Thread: Unravelling the Trail of Modern Slavery in the Fashion and Textile Industry.

Find out more information about the Tackling Modern Slavery, Human Trafficking and Child Labour in Modern Business programme.