A new 24-month project with a total budget of €170,000 has started in June 2026. The project explores how adaptive, context-relevant learning can strengthen the digital capabilities of the Dutch police basic teams (Basisteams) without placing disproportionate demands on their operational capacity.
Funded through the Politie & Wetenschap Call 2025 (project PW.OV.2026.10), Dr Dimitrios Vlachopoulos of RSM is working with Dutch police Cyber-Ready Basisteams (CRB) in this project that brings together the Netherlands Police Academy, Dutch Police, Basisteams, and Risbo Research.
Closing the digital-readiness gap
Digitalisation now shapes almost every form of crime, from online fraud and social media activity to digital evidence and cyber-enabled offences. However, digital skills, confidence and experience vary across police employees, teams and regions. Officers may be uncertain about which digital information matters, how to interpret it and what action to take.
Dr Vlachopoulos: “This collaboration between RSM, RISBO, the Netherlands Police Academy and the Basisteams gives us a valuable opportunity to connect scientific evidence, educational design and frontline experience. Ultimately, we want the project to produce learning approaches that are effective enough to make a difference, but practical enough to be used and scaled within everyday police work.”
Identifying needs before designing solutions
Rather than starting with a fixed training programme, Dr Vlachopoulos first aims to investigate the needs of Basisteams through a mixed-methods study. Through a digital survey and interviews with neighbourhood officers, team leaders and analysts, he can assess knowledge, applied skills, self-efficacy, experience of cyber-enabled incidents, motivation, and learning preferences.
Dr Vlachopoulos’s findings will inform co-creation sessions that involve police professionals, trainers and researchers. Together with the police teams, he can develop at least five compact learning interventions, including microlearning modules, scenario-based simulations, adaptive quizzes and AI-supported reflection activities.
Testing workable interventions
When they are ready, the interventions will be piloted in the Basisteams and evaluated for changes in knowledge, confidence and motivation. Participating professionals will help to refine the materials through an empowerment-evaluation approach.
Activities will be designed to fit existing work routines, such as briefings, shift handovers and team meetings. The final phase will develop recommendations for implementation and scaling within police education and professional-development pathways.
“Our objective is not to create another generic digital-skills course,” says Dr Vlachopoulos. “We want to understand actual needs, co-design solutions around operational reality, and rigorously evaluate what works.”
The progress of this project can be followed at https://www.linkedin.com/company/basisteams/.
