Researcher Safety and Wellbeing Advice

Researcher safety and wellbeing is an area receiving growing recognition in the extremism, security, and defence space, particularly in light of emerging threats involving hybrid harms and new forms of distressing content. It is also an area particularly salient for early career researchers (ECRs) due to comparative lack of experience, the pressure to be visible and ‘successful’ in academia, and emerging risks in digital landscapes, among many other challenges. 

Many resources do exist, but are disparately spread across many institutions, disciplines, and parts of society (academia, government, and industry). Therefore, the NABS+ ECR Steering Group have developed these guides to synthesise advice from researchers in the field, and direct researchers to existing resources and supports.

Each guide is structured around three themes:

• Emotional and mental wellbeing when researching harmful or distressing content
• Physical and digital operational security when conducting research
• Safety and wellbeing when disseminating controversial or sensitive research

Under each theme, we have compiled advice from experts following a NABS+ workshop held in February 2026, and from researchers in the field through responses to a survey disseminated in Spring 2026. 

We would like to thank all those who completed or shared this survey. We greatly appreciate your time in supporting the safety and wellbeing of current and future researchers. 

Advice for ECRs and Researchers

This guide is particularly relevant to ECRs, but is applicable to researchers at all stages of their career, inside and outside of academia. Importantly, it should also be considered by supervisors, PIs, and institutions, alongside the dedicated accompanying outputs.

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Advice for Supervisors, PIs, and Institutions

This guide is directed explicitly at supervisors, PIs, and institutions, alongside individual researchers themselves. However, these parties should also consult the accompanying guide directed at ECRs and researchers.

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Note: the advice in the following documents are subjective and are based on individual experiences of researching difficult topics. We cannot guarantee that any/all of the recommendations made are relevant to your research, or that they should be used to replace any existing mechanisms which work for you. Different people may find some suggestions more useful or relevant than others. This advice does not represent the opinions of NABS+, CREST, or the members of the ECR steering group.