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.
Key information
The conference took place in Lisbon on 2 and 3 April 2025, with pre-conference workshops, sessions and networking on 1 April.
Jump to… | Programme | Posters | Photos | Keynotes | Committees | Supporting organisations
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
ProgrammeConference handbook
Conference handbook- 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 have been 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
Book of Abstracts & Open Science Framework
All authors were encouraged to upload their presentations and posters to our Open Science Framework page, to support open science.
The book of abstracts from the conference is available on Open Science Framework.
Photos
Photos from the conference can be viewed on Flickr.
Keynote speakers
The recordings of the keynote talks can be viewed on our YouTube channel.
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:
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)
- 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)
