Research team:
Jan Lecouturier, Ivo Vlaev, Angel M Chater, Michael P Kelly, Falko Sniehotta
Background
Policy aiming to change population behaviour is often not evidence based. Over the last 10 years there has been a rapid increase in the number of, and demand for, organisations offering behavioural science advice to government to address societal problems. Little is known about the state of science and the experiences of these evidence providers. The purpose of this study is to identify current practice in this emerging field, what can be learnt from both long- and more recently established behavioural science units and the potential for a knowledge exchange network.
Methods
Qualitative study using one-to-one interviews with representatives from a purposeful sample of units in the vanguard of international behavioural science research in policy. Data will be collected on ways of working, composition of teams, processes, dissemination practices, and experiences of the application of behavioural science to policy. The data will be analysed thematically.
Potential impact
- Learn how other teams engage and work with policy makers
- Exchange methods and work together to develop novel ones
- learn from each other’s approaches to address health and social care issues
- Identify synergies
- Reduce duplication in projects, primarily in evidence syntheses of issues that are a worldwide problem (for example, anti-microbial resistance)
- Share research findings
- Identify experts