BR-UK Work Packages

Leads: Dr Jo Davan Wetton (UCL) and Professor Jo Hart (Manchester) 

This work package will lay the groundwork for building and enhancing capabilities in behavioural research, addressing challenges and fostering collaboration, training, and practices that contribute to sustained improvement and impact in the field. We have conducted two capability scoping surveys to better understand the current landscape of behavioural research in the UK (led by UCL) and the role of behavioural research within UK start-ups and scale-ups (led by Zinc). This multi-part study will pinpoint existing strengths, identify areas where scientific and stakeholder needs remain unmet, and highlight opportunities for significant advancements within behavioural research. The survey results are being utilised to establish a UK-wide network for behavioural research. 

Find out more about taking part in this research. 

Leads: Professor Jamie Brown (UCL), Dr Janna Hastings (UCL/Zurich), and Dr Aideen Maguire (ADR-UK) 

Better data infrastructure informed by underpinning ontologies and more rapid mechanisms to collect and report results is needed to safely and ethically scale up the pace and impact of behavioural research. This work package will create a strong foundation for behavioural research by enhancing data infrastructure, leveraging technology, and expanding the scope of studies to address a wider range of behaviours and issues. We will improve data infrastructure and ontologies by utilising underlying ontologies to inform the structure and organisation of data.​​

Leads: Professor Thomas Webb (Sheffield), Professor David Lagnado (UCL), and Professor Nichola Raihani (UCL/Auckland) 

This work package will improve the reliability and accessibility of methods in behavioural research, incorporating ontologies, robust frameworks, causal models, and tools for effective data integration and visualisation. These efforts are geared towards enhancing decision-making based on sound behavioural science methodologies and will build upon the work and outputs of the BR-UK Demonstration Projects (specifically 2 and 3). We will also provide tools and opportunities to rapidly identify and synthesise evidence as part of the longer-term plans for a BR-UK rapid systematic review function that will provide rapid and high-quality reviews to inform decision-making in response to emerging issues.

Leads: Professor Oliver Escobar (Edinburgh), Professor Ann Phoenix (UCL), and Professor Stephen Reicher (St Andrews)

To ensure that BR-UK's research and outputs are accessible and meaningful to diverse groups and embedded in contexts that are relevant to them, BR-UK will employ participatory methods to gain insights into public and stakeholder perspectives. This will include developing effective methods for engaging and sustaining the public and other stakeholders, such as community mobilisation, citizen engagement, and leadership.

Activities will include: incorporating community mobilisation & citizen engagement into long-term plans, improving understanding of how mobilisation and engagement affect the priorities and decisions of policymakers and the acceptance of policy decisions by communities, delivering training in engagement skills to build capacity across BR-UK and providing training opportunities to build knowledge and skills in public and stakeholder engagement therefore fostering capacity of individuals and teams across BR-UK in this area.