Organisation profile

The mission of the Aston Institute for Forensic Linguistics is to improve the delivery of justice through the analysis of language.  

Our research is always Excellent.  It is often Collaborative, in terms of working with beneficiaries, research and higher education institutions and across disciplinary boundaries. It is always Impactful with a view to creating real insight within the broader justice system, often leading to change of policy and practice. Additionally, through the creation of the University Research Institute our research will become more Sustainable – we have ambitious targets to win further research funds to expand forensic linguistic capability for the UK and the international community. We aim to build a globally significant hub for forensic linguistics research.

The Aston Institute for Forensic Linguistics (AIFL) was founded in 2019. It is a substantial expansion of the former Aston Centre for Forensic Linguistics that was founded in 2008 and in the autumn of  2019 we appointed a total of 15 new staff to establish the Institute.  This expansion was funded via a £6M investment including a £5.4M award from Research England’s Expanding Excellence in England (E3) fund.

Further details about our research and structure can be found at our main website: https://www.aston.ac.uk/research/forensic-linguistics