In November 2018, DARE team members took part in the first periodic review meeting for the project. Two independent reviewers – eminent researchers in the field – undertook a forensic review of the work of the DARE project to date and provided constructive comments and suggestions as the project enters its major empirical research phase.

Progress on all elements of the DARE project to date was reported on, but the focus of this first review was on two substantive deliverables produced in this first period of work. These are: a systematic review of studies on the relationship between inequality and radicalisation; and a de-radicalisation programme evaluation tool.The systematic review of the evidence base on the relationship between inequality and radicalisation is a methodologically rigorous review of quantitative and mixed-method studies published between 2001 and 2017. The studies (141 in total) concerned different forms of radicalisation’ (cognitive and behavioural radicalisation, far-right and religious/Islamist radicalisation) and inequality (economic and socio-political).

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During this first period of work, DARE has developed a new tool for assessing the structural integrity of countering violent extremism (CVE) programmes based on a thorough and critical review of research on CVE evaluation to date. This tool – the De-radicalisation Programme Integrity Evaluation Checklist (DPIEC) – enables practitioners and policy makers to assess a programme’s structural integrity, i.e. the technical quality of the programme design in order to estimate the programme’s likelihood of impact.  The toolkit can be used for existing programmes or to systematically design programmes from scratch.

The DPIEC is currently being trialled and will be made public once testing is completed and revisions to the tool have been made.​

The DARE team has also produced a substantive methodological document (DARE Data Handbook) including a series of shared research instruments and protocols to guide all aspects of empirical work, which was highlighted by the independent reviewers as ‘a significant achievement’.

We are happy to report that the independent reviewers concluded that the DARE project has ‘fully achieved its objectives and milestones’ for this first reporting period and that the project is in great shape to meet the challenges ahead!

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