The NPCU worked with the BBC and the ESRC’s Centre for Research on Socio Cultural Change (CRESC) to analyse how Arabic, Russian, Persian and English-speaking audiences responded to the Olympics and the BBC’s coverage of it. Research mixed Twitter analytics, news analysis, interviews and ethnography.

This project responded to the increasing role of religious institutions and networks in addressing social unrest, conflict, extremism, and discord through arbitration and/or humanitarian assistance.

Researchers at the NPCU investigated the possibilities offered by web metrics, and the practical and ethical dilemmas that accompany them.

This 12-month pilot investigated the use of blogs and Twitter as a way of monitoring information infrastructures for early warnings of problems. The project was undertaken in collaboration with Linguamatics Ltd and funded by the Technology Strategy Board.

A project investigating the impact of new media on the new security environment in the post-9/11 age. Funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.

In 2007, Dr Mary Francoli studied the development of MPs' blogging in the UK and Canada. The project traced the growth and prevalence of MPs' blogging, the scope and objectives of such blogs, and assessed their democratic significance.

Shifting Securities examines changing relationships between government, media and multicultural publics in the UK. Ben O'Loughlin and AkilN. Awan were researchers on this ESRC-funded project, part of the first wave of the major New Security Challenges Programme led by Professor Stuart Croft.