Experts at the forefront of modern slavery research and prevention tackled questions of how to address future challenges at an event bringing together academia and practice in London.

Lancaster University’s Pentland Centre for Sustainability in Business’s Modern Slavery Knowledge and Action Hub hosted representatives from 13 organisations for an intense workshop.

Modern Slavery: co-creating joint research agendas to swing the pendulum towards supply chain justice, aimed to lay out the future agenda for modern slavery research and action.

Attendees included NGOs supporting survivors of modern slavery and helping business to respond to challenges, investment management organisations, and government departments.

“We want to ensure that these future research efforts are closely matched to the challenges being experienced in practice,” said Distinguished Professor Linda Hendry, head of the Modern Slavery Hub and one of eight hub members who took part in the day, along with colleagues from Lancaster University Management School and the School of Law.

“This was an opportunity for us to shape future research avenues, and for those on the frontline of modern slavery action to express what is important to them.”

The Modern Slavery Knowledge & Action Hub brings together wide and varied inter-disciplinary expertise. The group of leading academics is seeking to better embed social sustainability within both global and local complex supply chains.

The researchers have expertise that cuts across methods of detecting and remediating against modern slavery in global supply chains; understanding the impact of modern slavery legislation; and assessing the working conditions of migrant workers.

Three interactive sessions across the day focused on Worker Voice, Governance and Reporting, and Legislation and Regulation. Each was led by a Lancaster academic and a partner organisation representative.

Dr Matthew Young, of modern slavery and crime reduction charity Causeway, and Dr Divya Jyoti, a Lecturer at Lancaster University, led the worker voice session, followed by Auréliane Froehlich, from open data platform Wikirate, and Lancaster’s Dr Mahmoud Gad taking the Legislation and Regulation session.

The final session on Governance and Reporting was hosted by Freya Smith, modern slavery charity Unseen, and Professor Jan Bebbington, Director of the Pentland Centre.

Following the success of the event, the ambition is to obtain funding to develop work around the questions that emerged on the day in all three areas. The initial funding will lay the groundwork for potential large-scale grant applications.