Behaviour Change Conference 2025

Our conferences bring together industry, academia, government and the third sector to discuss the applicability of behaviour change to the most up to date global topics.

Conference banner join us in Lisbon 2-3 April 2025

Key information

The conference took place in Lisbon on 2 and 3 April 2025, with pre-conference workshops, sessions and networking on 1 April.

About the conference

The 9th International Conference from the UCL Centre for Behaviour Change was held in partnership with the Behavioural Sciences Group at the NOVA National School of Public Health.

There was also an online option, allowing virtual attendees to watch the sessions live.

Programme

Conference handbook

Timings

See an overview of the conference timings

Thematic areas

Health behaviour change - behaviour change for improving health and wellbeing
Climate change and sustainability - behaviour change for preserving the environment, mitigating negative consequences of climate change and ensuring sustainable development
Advancing behavioural science and its application - innovations in behaviour change theory, design, measurement and other methodologies, as well as critical issues in its advancement and application
Digital technologies - the use of information technology, social media, or mobile and wireless technologies in behaviour change research and interventions
Applications of behavioural science to policy and practice - theory, methods, and evidence to promote the implementation of research findings into health and other services, such as routine work with patients, family members, schools, communities, or organisational or policy contexts
Inequalities and inclusiveness - impact of inequalities on behaviour and associated outcomes, and how to tackle such effects, including inclusiveness approaches

Conference Posters

All posters are available to view on Padlet.

Five posters were selected for Best Poster Awards. Due to a higher number of submissions, two awards were given in both the research and student categories. The winning posters were selected by a panel of judges from the 2025 Scientific Committee.

While the overall standard of posters was high, the prize-winning posters stood out for their exceptionally high-quality research, presented in a visually engaging, accessible, and compelling manner.

Congratulations to all prize winners! Prize winners will be emailed a certificate and will be given a free workshop place at our next conference.

Best Research Posters

Michelle Griffiths, University of West England, UK: Co-designing ‘ROMI’, a people-driven AI-Intervention with people living with type 2 diabetes from underserved communities

Emma Maier, Goldsmiths University, UK: Attitudes, time pressure, and behaviour change techniques affect route journey planning decisions

Best Knowledge in Practice Poster

Sarah-Jean Cunningham, Magenta Consulting: From Awareness to Action: Transforming Climate Consciousness in Iraq with an Evidence-Based SBCC Campaign

Best Student Posters

Kristina Pffefer, University of Southern Denmark, Denmark: Development of checklist and assessing fidelity

Kai Bellmann, Delft University of Technology, Netherlands: The Psychology of Urban Climate Adaptation: Identifying Behavioural Influences and Dynamics in Policy Decision-Making

Open Science Framework

We encourage all authors to upload to our Open Science Framework page.

Photos

Photos from the conference can be viewed on Flickr.

Keynote speakers

The recordings of the keynote talks can now be viewed on our YouTube channel.

We are delighted to announce our keynotes for the conference:

The who and how of embedded behavioural research and practice

Professor Lucie Byrne-Davis & Professor Jo Hart (University of Manchester)

More than ever, people are asking for answers to tricky behavioural problems that cause or sustain challenges to human health. Across the world, organisations are tasked with tackling these problems and are recognising that expertise in behavioural science might maximise their chances. There are tools, methods and theories that can be used and a growing consensus around some of these. In this presentation, we will discuss our experiences of, and research on, working with public health teams and health partnerships across the world, to mobilise and conduct behavioural research. We will ask how we can do this optimally.

Find out more in our short interview with Lucie and Jo.

Achieving behaviour change through communications

Professor Robert West (University College London)

Communications campaigns (‘comms’) play a key role in behaviour change, whether it be through TV, social media, emails, radio, leaflets, articles, videos, podcasts, art, chatbots, conversations or other channels. This keynote will discuss how to plan a comms campaign using the Capability, Opportunity, Motivation-Behaviour (COM-B) framework to decide what to target and what behaviour change techniques are best suited to this kind of intervention. It will go on to explore how to bridge the gap between the choice of behaviour change techniques and generation of specific ‘messaging’ using the creative process and whether and how AI can help with this.

A System Issue: Interdependence for Health

Professor Vera Araújo Soares (Heidelberg University)

Our society is facing wicked system-wide problems; of particular concern is the health of our planet and its link to population health. Climate change, heat waves and pollution are increasing morbidity, mortality and disease (ecosyndemics). A false dichotomy exists between complex systems and individual-level approaches to population health. Intervention development needs a stepped approach, with user engagement and co-design. This keynote will discuss research gaps and opportunities for new and existing behavioural research to develop interventions that target different layers within a system. This will be vital to achieve good health and wellbeing globally, a United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal.

Committees

We are very grateful to have the following members on our committees for the 2025 conference:

Scientific Committee 2025

Co-chairs:

Dr Fabiana Lorencatto (The UCL Centre for Behaviour Change, UK)
Dr Marta Marques (NOVA National School of Public Health, Portugal)

Committee members:

Dr Miguel Arriaga (Portuguese Directorate-General of Health, Portugal)
Dr Sadie Boniface (The UCL Centre for Behaviour Change, UK)
Dr Oscar Castro (Singapore-ETH Centre, Singapore)
Professor Angel Chater (University of Bedfordshire & The UCL Centre for Behaviour Change, UK)
Dr Talea Cornelius (Columbia University, USA)
Dr Cristina Godinho (NOVA National School of Public Health, Portugal)
Dr Keegan Knittle (University of Jyväskylä, Finland)
Professor Felix Naughton (University of East Anglia, UK)
Dr Olga Perski (Tampere University, Finland)
Professor Manuel Armayones Ruiz (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Spain)
Dr Eline Smit (University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands)
Dr Elaine Toomey (University of Galway, Ireland)
Professor Jane Walsh (University of Galway, Ireland)
Dr Rosie Webster (ZINC, UK)

Organising Commitee 2025

Dr Fabiana Lorencatto (The UCL Centre for Behaviour Change, UK)
Dr Marta Marques (NOVA National School of Public Health, Portugal)
Professor Susan Michie (The UCL Centre for Behaviour Change, UK)
Maiara Moreto (NOVA National School of Public Health, Portugal)
Isabelle Olson (The UCL Centre for Behaviour Change, UK)
Carolina Silva (Trinity College Dublin & NOVA National School of Public Health, Portugal)
Dr Cristina Godinho (NOVA National School of Public Health, Portugal)
Aaliyah Boornois (NOVA National School of Public Health, Portugal)

Supporting organisations

Thank you to the following organisations for supporting the conference: