Capability Scoping Research

Behavioural research is crucial for informing policy and practice in areas not limited to but including public health, climate change and sustainability, economic well-being, education, crime and justice, social welfare, governance and digital technology including artificial intelligence. Making advances in these areas, and improving the ways we conduct behavioural research, will depend on large-scale collaboration across disciplinary and sector boundaries, as well as developing more effective links between basic research, applied research, policy and practice.  

Behavioural Research UK (BR-UK) is part of the ESRC effort to facilitate and  build national capability for behavioural research in the UK. One of our first activities is a multi-part scoping study to understand the current landscape of behavioural research, including where there are gaps and opportunities in relation to societal needs, and to establish a national network and a set of strategic priorities for BR-UK’s future work and commissioning fund.  Our capability scoping work includes several phases: mapping organisations and networks; surveying behavioural researchers and research users; conducting interviews and workshops; and co-developing strategic priorities. The focus is across sectors (research, public and voluntary sector organisations, and industry).  The protocols and plans for this work is available on the Open Science Framework.  The primary aim is to describe the field of behavioural research across all four UK nations and determine strengths, gaps, needs, opportunities, and priorities. Find out more about what capability scoping is and how you can help us below. 

Our capability scoping study will include:

A documentary review: Review of recent strategies for advancing behavioural and social research from national and devolved governments and research funders. We will summarise how these strategies propose to strengthen behavioural research capability and identify gaps and areas of unmet scientific and stakeholder needs, as well as areas for advancement.  [Protocol on OSF]

Mapping of behavioural research activity: We will gather information from databases, internet searches, stakeholder elicitation and snowballing to create and analyse a public database and map of UK behavioural research activity (see below). [Protocol on OSF] 

A cross-sector survey:  We will conduct the first phase of a national survey of behavioural researchers and research users in public, private and third/voluntary sectors to gather wide-ranging views on current capabilities and future needs. [Protocol on OSF]

A study of behavioural research in start-ups and scaleups: A survey to assess the needs and priorities and identify opportunities for behavioural research in UK start-ups and scale-ups (NB: the survey is closed). [Protocol on OSF]

We will also undertake a Delphi+ exercise and provide online workshops to explore and co-develop ways to strengthen behavioural research capability in the UK.