Babak Akhgar

Professor Babak Akhgar is a Visiting Professor of Informatics at the University of South Wales and holds multiple prestigious roles, including the founder and Director of the CENTRIC Centre of Excellence. He is affiliated with the Research Directorate within the university and serves on several boards, such as the academic advisory board of SAS UK, the European Organisation for Security (EOS), Europol's External Advisory Board on Data Protection, and South Yorkshire Police Evidence Based Policing. Since 2019, he has been a board member of NEBRC. His professional experience spans commercial strategy analysis, technical leadership, and research coordination in over 30 EU-funded and 50 nationally funded security projects.

• Education:
  • BSc in Software Engineering, Sheffield Hallam University, UK
  • MSc in Information Systems in Management (Distinction), Sheffield Business School
  • PhD in Strategic Information Systems, Sheffield Hallam University
• Research Interests:

  Professor Akhgar’s work focuses on security-related informatics, including intelligence management within the security domain, open-source investigations (OSINT), counter-terrorism, organized crime, and AI ethics. He emphasizes the strategic application of information systems to address complex security challenges and has developed tools like the CENTRIC OSINT Hub, used by UK law enforcement agencies.

• Grants & Projects:
  • Coordinator of the EU-funded MIICT project
  • Innovation Manager of the EU-funded Starlight project
  • Principal Investigator (PI) on the AP4AI project (collaboration with Europol)
  • Co-Investigator (Co-I) on the UKRI-funded 3PO project
• Awards:
  • Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2022, recognizing his contributions to security research
• Labs/Teams:

  He leads the CENTRIC Centre, which specializes in terrorism, resilience, intelligence, and organized crime research. The CENTRIC OSINT Hub supports law enforcement with advanced open-source investigation tools. His current projects include AP4AI, addressing accountability principles for AI in collaboration with Europol, and the 3PO initiative under UKRI.