Building an EU-Wide Behavioural Science Community of Practice
We worked with the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) to support the development of a behavioural-science community of practice for public health professionals across the EU and EEA. The organisation sought to strengthen behavioural insight capability across member states and create sustainable systems for shared learning, training and practice exchange.
The Challenge
Public health teams across Europe increasingly recognise the value of behavioural science in preventing communicable diseases, yet access to consistent training, tools and shared expertise varies widely. ECDC wanted to create a coordinated approach that would upskill practitioners, enable cross-country collaboration and embed behavioural science more firmly within national public health systems.
Our Approach
We worked with ECDC, partner universities and public health organisations to design a community of practice that met the real needs of practitioners. This included co-creating training content, shaping digital learning materials and establishing structures that would allow ongoing collaboration across countries. Our role focused on helping translate behavioural science into practical, accessible formats suitable for diverse public health contexts.
Solution Delivered
We developed a comprehensive set of learning and collaboration resources, including a two-day training course, e-learning modules, webinars and a shared practice-exchange platform. All materials were co-designed with public health teams to ensure usability, relevance and alignment with real-world challenges. This supported ECDC in creating a sustainable model for knowledge sharing and capacity building across the region.
Impact
The project strengthened behavioural-science capability across EU and EEA public health systems. By establishing a community of practice with high-quality learning resources and collaborative infrastructure, ECDC is now better equipped to support practitioners in applying behavioural insights to disease prevention, crisis response and day-to-day public health practice.