The foster+freeman Applications Team has already made a strong start to the year, following an exceptionally busy 2025 spent supporting customers and distributors around the world. Between the six members of the team based in the UK, over 90 training sessions were conducted last year, all ensuring our technology is implemented correctly, confidently and consistently. In the US, there is also a dedicated team which provides training specifically to our extensive customer base across the US and Canada. We often send out a training feedback form following our sessions, and last year the entire team achieved a staggering average score of 9.7 out of 10. This reflects the consistently high standard of technical delivery, product expertise and customer engagement provided across our global training programmes.

What is an Application Specialist?

Application Specialists are a well-established and respected role across the wider scientific instrumentation sector, not just within forensic science. Whether in pharmaceuticals, analytical chemistry or materials science, these specialists bridge the gap between complex technology and practical application. At foster+freeman, their responsibilities extend well beyond product familiarisation.

They deliver formal customer training and support our global distributors with technical guidance and product demonstrations. They also attend exhibitions, contribute to tender responses, and provide ongoing technical support long after installation is complete. Internally, they act as subject matter experts, supporting colleagues across our R&D, marketing and commercial teams with activities such as product development input, software testing and the creation of technical marketing materials.

Why is it Important?

Modern forensic systems such as the VSC9000, CL-Auto or the DCS6 ‘under the hood’ are sophisticated instruments built on advanced optics and multi-spectral illumination, ensuring our customers receive some of the highest-quality imaging systems on the market. However, effective training requires more than simply explaining which buttons to press. Our Application Specialists ensure that users understand the science underpinning the system — from selecting the optimal wavelength to locate evidence at the crime scene, to applying best-practice image capture techniques for fingermark photography, preserving evidential integrity all the way to court. This depth of knowledge gives customers confidence not only in operating the equipment, but also in defending the results it produces.

After-sales support is equally critical. Forensic equipment represents a significant investment, and ongoing technical support ensures our customers gain maximum value from our products, ultimately helping them recover more evidence and secure more prosecutions. In many cases, the Application Specialist is the first technical point of contact a customer encounters, and the confidence they convey directly influences trust in both the equipment and the organisation behind it. Many companies do not employ such extensively trained specialists, and this is something that foster+freeman prides itself on delivering: expert products with expert support.

Where do they come from?

We have a wide mix of specialists on the team, with varied backgrounds. At a minimum, an Application Specialist is educated to degree level, although some of the team are former practitioners who, in the UK, have attended crime scenes, examined casework in the laboratory, or even given evidence in court. Regardless of background, all Application Specialists undergo a rigorous training programme, usually spending the first 6–12 months learning the products to a level where they can confidently deliver customer training.

For many products, the specialist will undergo a formal training assessment alongside a more experienced colleague the first time they deliver a course, ensuring they meet the highest possible standard. This often means customers benefit from the knowledge and experience of two specialists during a single visit. Only after official sign-off is a specialist permitted to deliver solo product training, ensuring a consistently high-quality customer experience. All Application Specialists are trained on a minimum of two product groups; Crime-lites, Fingerprints, Questioned Documents and Trace with some trained across three. Continued learning and cross-training onto new products is ongoing. However, becoming a true expert in a specific system takes time and extensive hands-on experience, including understanding functions, applications and troubleshooting potential technical issues. So please be aware that not every specialist coming to deliver the training will be an expert on every single product we produce, or perhaps they just haven’t finished their own training yet, but rest assured they will recommend the right specialist to help where required.