Kriminalistik Simulation Labs — HBP i3 2025/32 — is an educational innovation project with a primarily teaching-oriented mission, focused on advanced training in Forensic Sciences and Criminalistics.
The project is framed within the Collaboration Agreement between the Basque Academy of Police and Emergencies — AVPE — and the University of the Basque Country / Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea — EHU — for the creation and development of the University Teaching and Research Hub in Forensic Sciences and Criminalistics — ZiForKrim. It is developed with the participation of the Scientific Police Unit of the Ertzaintza.
Kriminalistik Simulation Labs is aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly SDG 16 — Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions, by contributing to rigorous scientific training applied to the justice system.
Forensic science, understood as a retrodictive and multidisciplinary science, is not limited to the technical analysis of traces or material evidence. It also requires logical and contextual assessment, strict traceability procedures, and methodological safeguards capable of ensuring the reliability of forensic conclusions.
From this perspective, Kriminalistik Simulation Labs provides an immersive and collaborative learning environment, connected with specialised professionals and academic centres, and designed to guide students in the applied understanding of the scientific method in complex forensic contexts.
The training programme is structures into three phases:
1. On Being a Forensic Scientist
This first phase introduces students to the methodological foundations of forensic science, professional ethics and evidential reasoning.
It focuses on what it means to act as a forensic scientist in a justice-oriented context: working with uncertainty, formulating scientifically sound hypotheses, understanding the limits of forensic inference, and distinguishing between technical findings, interpretation and evidential value.
2. Crime Scene Examination and Sampling
The second phase is devoted to crime scene examination, technical recovery of traces, preservation of the scene and application of chain-of-custody protocols.
Students work on the identification, documentation, collection and preservation of evidence, paying particular attention to contamination risks, procedural traceability and the methodological requirements that condition the subsequent forensic analysis.
3. Preparation and Defence of an Expert Report
The third phase focuses on the interdisciplinary integration of evidence and the preparation and defence of a forensic expert report.
Students are trained to organise technical findings, assess their relevance, formulate reasoned conclusions and present them in a clear, rigorous and defensible manner. This phase also addresses the communicative and argumentative dimensions of forensic expertise in institutional and legal contexts.
Key Skills
Kriminalistik Simulation Labs contributes to the development of key competences in Criminalistics and Forensic Sciences, including:
- management of uncertainty in forensic contexts;
- probabilistic analysis of evidence;
- interdisciplinary integration of forensic findings;
- contextual assessment of traces and evidential materials;
- understanding of chain-of-custody requirements;
- distinction between observation, interpretation and conclusion;
- explicit identification of the technical and legal limits of expert reasoning;
- preparation and defence of scientifically grounded forensic reports.
The activity is therefore conceived not only as technical training, but also as a methodological and epistemic exercise in forensic reasoning.
Funding and Institutional framework
The programme is integrated into the ZiForKrim University-Business-Society Classroom, created in 2025 through a collaboration agreement with the Basque Academy of Police and Emergencies and the Scientific Police Unit of the Ertzaintza.
It forms part of the educational innovation project Kriminalistik SimuLABS: Zientzia, egiaren eta justiziaren zerbitzura — i3 2025/32, ONDU B .
The project is funded by SAE/HELAZ and is aligned with Sustainable Development Goal 16 — Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions.
