What the interviews are telling us.
Identity After the Uniform is a long term qualitative study. This page shows how far it has got, the themes coded from the interviews so far and how those themes shape what AURIS builds next. These are emerging patterns, not proven results.
Research progress
Counted from the last verified figure recorded for the programme. The live log figure appears here as soon as it is higher.
Interviews coded
38 of 108
Recorded, transcribed and thematically coded.
Share of the planned sample
35%
The planned sample of 108 interviews is fixed.
Themes coded so far
0
Counted from the interview log, not written into this page.
Published papers keep the interview count they were written from. A paper reporting an earlier figure is a historical record and is never rewritten when the live count moves.
The themes
No themes have been published from the log yet. Coding is under way, and the themes will appear here as they are recorded. We do not list themes we cannot show the work behind.
Latest research updates
Newest first. Every update below is an already published record, shown with its own date and a link to the evidence behind it. Nothing appears here until it has been published.
- Published paper
Identity After the Uniform: What the Evidence Tells Me, Where the Gaps Are, and What I'm Doing Next
The wider evidence base, findings from 38 of a planned 108 coded interviews, the current evidence strength of the AURIS framework, and the gaps still open in this work.
- Published paper
Why AURIS Exists: The Evidence for Identity-Focused Support After the Uniform
AURIS White Paper Vol 5: the evidence base for the Identity After the Uniform programme, with a Trafford Veterans CIC case study.
- Published paper
State of the Evidence: What We Know, What We Don't, and Why This Research Is Needed
An audit of the AURIS Master Evidence Repository, conducted 30 August 2026, setting out plainly which evidence is solid, which is located but not yet fully verified, which has been downgraded, and which gaps remain open.
- Research project
State of the Evidence — Published
A draft audit of the AURIS evidence base: what is verified, what is not, and where the gaps sit.
- Published paper
I didn't start researching identity. I started trying to help people.
A first person account of how a medical discharge in 2014, a self funded CIC in 2015 and a woodworking project in Liverpool in 2017 turned into the questions now being asked through Identity After the Uniform.
- Published paper
Identity in Global Transition Policy
A six nation audit of what transition policy says, and does not say, about identity.
- Research project
Partner Pilots: Trafford Veterans CIC, Red Rose Recovery, Out in the Bay — In delivery
Evidence informed pilots testing the AURIS Identity System in real delivery settings alongside partner organisations.
- Published paper
The Identity Gap in Service Leaver Support: Why It Matters
Practical resettlement support is comprehensive, yet our review of UK transition guidance found very little explicit discussion of identity as a psychological process. This article explains what we examined, what we found, and where identity adaptation fits alongside existing support.
- Research project
Identity in Global Transition Policy — Published
A six nation audit of what transition policy says, and does not say, about identity.
- Research project
Service Provider Identity Adaptation — In review
Extending the model beyond leaving service to the ongoing adaptation people make while still in role.
- Research project
From Transition to Service Provider Identity Adaptation — Published
Repositioning transition as an ongoing process of identity adaptation rather than a single event at the end of service.
- Research project
Identity in Occupational Transition — Published
The parliamentary evidence review on identity in occupational transition, readable in full in the Research Library with citation details.
- Research project
Identity After the Uniform — Data collection ongoing
A long term qualitative study of how identity changes when a defining role ends, drawing on interviews across the military, emergency services and healthcare.
How an interview becomes published work
- Step 1
Interview
A conversation is recorded with someone whose identity changed when a defining role ended or changed. Participants are never named on this site.
The studies running now - Step 2
Transcribe
The recording is written up in full. An interview only counts towards the figures below once there is a transcript to work from.
- Step 3
Code
Themes are drawn out of the transcript. An interview counts as coded once it carries a transcript and at least one theme, so the count can never overstate the work.
How the evidence is graded - Step 4
Publish
Once a pattern holds across enough interviews it is written up as a paper or white paper, published open access with its own record.
Everything published so far
How the themes shape the programme
Coded themes decide what the programme studies next, what a paper can honestly claim and which part of the AURIS Framework needs strengthening. Where a theme repeats across interviews it is carried into the pillar it belongs to. Where it does not repeat, it stays in the log as a single account.
- A
Awareness
Noticing what is happening before reacting to it.
- U
Understanding
Making sense of why the reaction happens.
- R
Regulation
Steadying the response so it can be chosen.
- I
Identity
Rebuilding who you are underneath the role.
- S
Stability
Holding the change in place over time.
What we can and cannot say yet
One sequence has appeared often enough to be worth naming: identity, then community, then purpose, then stability. It is an emerging pattern from 22 of 108 interviews. It is not proven, it is not a treatment claim, and it will only be stated as a finding if it holds across the full sample.
Participants are never identified here. No names, no direct quotes and no interview dates appear on this page or anywhere in the learning material.
The live studies behind these figures are listed under current research, and everything published so far is under publications.
Interested in taking part or collaborating?
We welcome contact from people with lived experience, researchers and organisations who can help test and strengthen the evidence base.