Wednesday, 09 April 2025
Today (9 April), the Leverhulme Trust Board announced the three winners of its 2025 Leverhulme Research Centre competition. Each centre will be funded for up to £10 million over ten years.
Led by King’s College London Department of War Studies and the University of Nottingham Rights Lab, one of the three new Centres will focus on slavery in war.
The new Leverhulme Centre for Research on Slavery in War will be the first overarching and integrative attempt to understand the slavery–war nexus as it has evolved historically and up to the present.
Nearly 90% of recent armed conflicts have involved some form of slavery, as members of the new Centre have discovered. In a world facing proliferating conflicts, the Centre will reshape knowledge of how slavery in war can be forecasted and tackled – shaping in the process a new interdisciplinary field of study and a step-change towards the global goal of eliminating forced labour, modern slavery, and human trafficking.
Dr Maeve Ryan, Reader in History and Foreign Policy in the Department of War Studies at King’s, and Director of the new Leverhulme Centre for Research on Slavery in War, said: “The centre will transform understandings of both slavery and war, uncovering the dynamics by which slavery takes root and flourishes in war, how actors in and around conflict zones use slavery strategically and tactically, and how slavery influences the course, conduct, and consequences of conflicts. By ensuring that slavery in war is recognised and addressed as a central issue in global conflict studies and policy response, we aim to transform the tools with which the world tackles this enduring human rights violation."
The relationships between modern slavery and war are poorly understood, creating gaps in understanding that mean governments, international institutions, and humanitarian actors are ill-prepared to prevent or respond to slavery in war and its deep, long-lasting impacts.
Professor Trodd continued: "One of the Centre’s aims is to transform early warning of slavery practices within shifting conflict dynamics—bringing new analytical approaches to a 5,000-year-old problem so that we can transform its future.”
A dual-site institution, the new Centre combines the complementary strengths of both institutions: KCL is home to the world’s largest academic community dedicated to the study of war and security, and the Rights Lab is the global leader in modern slavery research. Together, these institutions will form a powerful interdisciplinary partnership that builds a new research field of slavery in war and a new generation of field-leading early-career researchers.
Professor Tom Rodden, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research and Knowledge Exchange at the University of Nottingham, said: “The new Centre's findings will have far-reaching implications not only for academic scholarship but also for real-world applications in policymaking, military strategy, and humanitarian aid. In a world where conflict-driven enslavement remains rampant, the Leverhulme Centre for Research on Slavery in War offers a timely and essential contribution to understanding and combating one of humanity’s most ancient, pervasive, and persistent injustices.”
Since 2015, the Leverhulme Trust grant competition has aimed to encourage original research which would establish or reshape a significant field of study and transform our understanding of an important topic in contemporary society.
The Leverhulme Trust supports fundamental, curiosity-driven research, which is often multidisciplinary, ambitious and high-risk. Therefore, applicants were invited to be bold when compiling their proposals. While applications strongly led by the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences were encouraged in this particular call, the specific choice of research topic was left deliberately open, in line with the Trust’s responsive mode of operation. The quality of the bids received was phenomenally high, and selecting the three winners was incredibly challenging.
Professor Anna Vignoles, Director of the Leverhulme Trust, said: “Over the last decade, the Trust has invested £100 million to set up ten UK-based Leverhulme Research Centres. These centres are bold and interdisciplinary; they embrace novel approaches and have reshaped and established new fields.
“In our centenary year, the Trust Board is proud to fund three new centres in the humanities and social sciences that seek to transform our understanding by addressing vital issues, such as how slavery in war can be forecasted and tackled.”
Other 2025 Leverhulme Research Centres are the Leverhulme Centre for Algorithmic Life, based at Durham University, and the Leverhulme Centre for Humanity and Space, led by the University of Leicester.
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More information is available from the Rights Lab on rightslab@nottingham.ac.uk
Feature image: Mural created by artist Joel Bergner with Syrian refugee girls and Jordanians, in Dhlail, Jordan
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