Minerva
Following the Hillsborough tragedy, the Metropolitan Police recruited Professor Jonathan Crego to develop Minerva. It gave public order commanders the opportunity to manage a simulated event before taking command of a real one.
Train | Simulate | Debrief | Improve
The Gold Standard
for Critical Incident
training and debriefing
The Hydra Foundation has set the standard in crisis simulation and critical incident debriefing.
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Origins and experience
From Minerva to Hydra
Hydra
Following the murder of Stephen Lawrence and the subsequent inquiry, Jonathan adapted Minerva to explore the slower, complex decisions involved in murder investigations. Hydra has since developed to address a wide range of critical incidents.
Established leaders
30+ years of simulation and debriefing
Hydra have set up almost 100 suites, run thousands of simulations and held over 400 debriefing sessions.
We are fully integrated with the UK police training curriculum. Hydra is used as a required part of various national training curricula, such as Firearms Command, Public Order Command and Hostage Negotiations.
10kV is established as the trusted and go-to method for debriefing critical incidents. We have run sessions for high-profile crises such as the London bombings, the Soham murders and COVID-19, and with Local Resilience Forums.
Learning from 10kV debriefs feeds back into Hydra exercises, helping teams learn from real incidents.
Read about Hydra’s history and teamSimulation and debriefing tools
The Hydra platform
Two areas of work: practising decisions through Hydra exercises, and learning from experience through 10kV debriefing.
01 / Simulation
Hydra
Teams work through realistic scenarios, discuss their options and record their decisions, supported by a facilitator.
- Hydra suites
- Dedicated spaces for syndicate work, exercise control and plenary discussion. Explore suites →
- Hydra Presence
- Remote participation in Hydra exercises, bringing together people in different locations. Explore Presence →
- Portable headset system
- Separate syndicate discussions within a shared room, supporting Hydra delivery away from a permanent suite.
DLabs reporting
Reporting from Hydra exercise discussions and decision logs.
02 / Debriefing
10kV
Participants contribute anonymously, identify the topics that matter to them and discuss their experiences through a facilitated debrief.
- In person or remotely
- Bring together people from one organisation or across agencies.
- Participant-led discussion
- Explore what happened, where difficulties arose and what can be learned.
AIQA analysis
Supports the analysis of 10kV debrief material, helping identify themes for review and reporting.
The Hydra methodology
How Hydra exercises work
Whether delivered in a suite, remotely through Presence or using portable equipment, Hydra exercises follow the same principles.
Explore the methodologySeparate syndicate discussions
Each group works through the scenario independently, discussing its options before comparing decisions with other groups.
Facilitator control
Facilitators guide the unfolding scenario and respond to participants’ decisions, keeping the exercise focused on its learning objectives.
Decisions and reasoning
Groups record what they decide and why. These logs give facilitators and participants material to explore in plenary discussion.
Realistic scenarios
Participants work in role, responding to the information, uncertainty and pressures of a realistic incident in a learning environment.
Exercise reporting and debrief analysis
Reporting and analysis
Hydra exercises → DLabs
DLabs reporting
Bring together exercise discussions and decision logs in a report covering the main findings, comparisons between syndicates, analysis of decisions and recommendations.
Explore DLabs reporting10kV debriefing → AIQA
AIQA analysis
Support the analysis of participant contributions from a 10kV debrief, identifying themes and preparing summaries for review by facilitators and analysts.
Explore AIQA analysisCrisis simulation exercises and training
We offer 6 core services
Hydra simulation suites
We build bespoke Hydra suites and create credible immersive simulations for your teams, complete with scenarios based around realistic events.
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Research
We work alongside a range of universities supporting undergraduate, postgraduate and research programmes.
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10kV debrief events
10kV sessions are standalone debriefs, using anonymised discussion tools to allow for honest feedback and problem solving.
Find out moreHydra training courses
We train your delivery teams to be self-sufficient in both the design and delivery of exercises. The Hydra Facilitators Course provides accreditation on successful completion.
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Create content
Our team are skilled at working alongside your teams to create Hydra exercise content. We help you convert traditional teaching methods into Hydra methods.
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Technical support
We support your team in running Hydra exercises and using the technology, with training and ongoing support for your suite.
Find out moreMulti-agency training and debriefing
Use cases
We work with emergency services, health and social care, education, government and commercial organisations. Exercises and debriefs address the decisions and challenges their teams face.
Command decisions
Explore decisions during major incidents, investigations and emergency responses.
Safeguarding
Examine risk, information sharing and working across police, health, education and social care.
Organisational culture
Discuss conduct, leadership and the issues affecting how people work together.
University teaching
Apply learning to realistic scenarios in subjects including policing, social work, health and law.
Learning from incidents
Gather experiences through 10kV debriefing and use the findings to inform future practice.
Working across agencies
Explore different responsibilities, assumptions and decisions within a shared scenario.
Hydra Foundation Projects
Explore our projects
2026 programme updates
Current and upcoming work
From the archive: World Economic Forum · Sellafield · Red Cross and partner agencies
Simulation research and organisational learning
Research capabilities and future work
Hydra exercises create opportunities to study how people discuss problems and make decisions. Our university partnerships connect that work with teaching and research, including the Hydra Research and Innovation Centre.
Research using Hydra
Decision logs and facilitated discussions provide material for examining professional judgement, group decisions and responses to complex scenarios.
Read selected published research →Areas for further research
Areas for further investigation include comparing responses to shared scenarios, studying learning over time and evaluating how analysis tools support facilitators. These are questions for investigation, rather than established findings.
Discuss a university partnership →Emergency services training
Free Hydra licences for emergency services
Working with the Emergency Services to save lives
The Hydra licence is free to emergency services. Consultancy, installation, training and maintenance are optional and charged for.
Non-emergency-service customers pay a licensing fee, with these optional services also charged for.
Find out more →
Simulate | Debrief | Support | Save lives
Hydra training and debriefing
Participant feedback
Feedback from participants who have experienced Hydra training and debriefing.
Really good session and very valuable learning. The interaction via iPad is brilliant. Would love to run it more often and remotely, and maybe even use it as part of PNAC selection.
The IT system is an excellent tool to create a mock situation. It has really given me the opportunity to project myself at the strategic level.
In addition to specific learning points, I feel I’m growing in confidence to challenge the norm and introduce more emotion into how I consider things.
Simulation and debriefing enquiries
Contact Us
Book a call or use the contact form to discuss training, debriefing or research.
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