'We want to see behavioural research used to benefit society'

A new £7 million behavioural research and teaching centre at the University of Birmingham is welcoming its first PhD researchers this month. The centre is taking a unique approach to training the next generation of researchers, placing co-production, impact and understanding human behaviour at its heart. 

Funded by the ESRC (Economic and Social Research Council) – part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) – the centre is the first ever CDT Plus (Centre for Doctoral Training Plus) funded by the council. The centre's Director is Professor Jessica Woodhams, a forensic psychologist by background; Professor in Biological Psychology Jet Veldhuijzen van Zanten is the centre's Deputy Director; and Dr Victoria Goodyear, Associate Professor in Pedagogy in Sport, Physical Activity and Health, is its Training Director.

Woodhams said she was excited to see the call-out to establish the centre which would both ensure that high-quality research was done but would also have a positive impact for people and organisations. 'We've got a lot of people at the university who research human behaviour – who do that because they want to have a positive impact on society. It's very impact-driven and we very much want to see behavioural research used to benefit society. All three of us also have a background of being really passionate and committed to developing the next generation, to carry that goal forward and affect positive change.'

Veldhuijzen van Zanten's own research has explored how to encourage people to become more physically active, especially those who experience barriers to physical activity. 'I work with patient populations, people from disadvantaged communities, and to do that research, I also work with non-academic organisations. We can do whatever we want in terms of doing research here in our university, but if we really want to make that impact, and especially with interventions, they need to be developed together with the end users and we need to think about how they can be incorporated.'

CENTRE-UB is one 'spoke' in the wheel of a broader 'hub and spoke' project funded by the ESRC. A £12 million Behavioural Research UK Leadership Hub (BR-UK) is at the heart of the project, being led by Professor Linda Bauld (University of Edinburgh) and Professor Susan Michie (University College London), which over the next five years will look at driving behavioural research targeted at addressing major societal challenges. This year CENTRE-UB has welcomed its first cohort of 17 PhD researchers who will be working on projects co-produced by academics and partner organisations.

All of the research at the centre will be focused on three themes – digital harms and goods, equity in physical and mental wellbeing, and environmental change and sustainability. Beneath those three themes will be a general theme of systems thinking – to emphasise that all behaviour takes place in the context of various systems.

Veldhuijzen van Zanten said the centre organised an interchange event where partner organisations with an interest in behavioural research and University of Birmingham academics, who could act as supervisors for PhD projects, could meet and share ideas. 'During the event we talked about the key challenges we wanted to focus on, and it acted as a way of matchmaking partner organisations and academics.

'Partner organisations might come to us and tell us an area of research they're interested in where they'd like to have a PhD studentship or early career researcher fellow and ask us to link them with academics. But also, we've got academic members of staff saying we're interested in this research area – do you have in your database of partner organisations any people who might be interested in co-developing a project? When we evaluated the applications for projects we really looked at that co-production element – whether collaboration was meaningful to the partner organisation, the graduate researcher, and for research as a whole. All three of those elements carry equal weight.'

Some of the projects the PhD researchers will be working on include a study on pro-environmental behaviour change and the role of zoos in partnership with Twycross Zoo, an evaluation of the impact of the Domestic Abuse Suicide Risk Assessment Tool in partnership with the Office of the West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner, and a study of the behaviour of analysts working with online violent extremist content in partnership with Tech Against Terrorism. The postdoctoral fellowships work slightly differently – where fellows can present their research ideas and the centre can matchmake them with an academic mentor and a partner organisation.

CENTRE-UB has also worked with the Talent Foundry – a charity which aims to increase social mobility for young people. Veldhuijzen van Zanten said one of the main aims of the centre is to be inclusive in terms of its research but also in increasing the diversity of the postgraduate cohort and early-career researchers.

'The Talent Foundry delivered a webinar for people who meet specific criteria and who want to apply for a PhD to support them with how to apply and what they might need. Applicants who meet certain eligibility criteria have also been offered one-to-one coaching to prepare for interviews. It's making sure that people who might not have academics in their networks have a good opportunity to prepare and know what to expect from the interview and from the application. In our process we've tried to make sure that we had allowed enough time for students to apply so they could get access to the webinars or to set up coaching sessions before interviews. They're a fantastic organisation to work with.'

The centre has also been funded to hold annual public engagement events, the first – on AI, Innovation and Human Behaviour – will be held in November. It will also host Celebrating Research and Impact events for its PhD students and fellows, Futures Events to bring members of partner organisations to the centre to speak about their careers as behavioural researchers working outside academia, and academics working on projects will also visit partner organisations to deliver talks about the work of CENTRE-UB.

Woodhams said it was incredibly exciting to be part of CENTRE-UB and thought there was potential for real cultural change within universities and other organisations. She added that the way PhD projects are approached at the centre allowed academics from different disciplines and backgrounds to work together which can help translate research into impact.

'Also the work we do will provide an opportunity to change the culture within other organisations – to really highlight the value that behavioural research can bring into these organisations and help train the next generation to be confident to say, actually, we can make a difference. We are keen to highlight that it's not a behaviour change centre – it's understanding human behaviour in its broadest sense, which is great because it means we get to be very inclusive now in the research and impact that we support.

'I think the other emotion I feel very much is an awareness of the responsibility that comes with this. We have an opportunity to do something really exciting and leave a legacy behind, and with that comes a very big sense of responsibility that we get it right. I know we all feel that, and I think it's important that we feel that… it means that we'll strive to do our absolute best to make it happen.'

Find out more about CENTRE-UB.