BAD awarded innovation funding for groundbreaking behavioural intervention research with University of Warwick

BAD, one of the UK’s hottest digital agencies in behaviour change for global enterprises, is delighted to announce that it is receiving an Accelerated Knowledge Transfer Partnership grant for its groundbreaking research partnership with the University of Warwick. The grant, provided by Innovate UK, the UK’s innovation agency, as part of their focus on accelerating market changing initiatives, will help BAD with its aim to create an innovative ‘behavioural design and test framework for corporate risk and compliance’.

This framework represents a new shift in bridging the gap between industry and science, to provide clear design recommendations based on current and relevant research. This will offer BAD’s clients a new way to test training and other interventions, meaning they can then better predict and maximise their impact before going full scale.

BAD behavioural science consultant Dr Charlotte Hills and lead researcher for the project will be working with world-renowned behavioural science expert, Professor Thomas Hills at the University of Warwick, and BAD behavioural science consultant DR Elaine Gallagher providing expert data analysis as the project is rolled out with support from industry partner, a global pharmaceutical enterprise.

The framework will be centred around the concept of ‘boosting’. ‘Boosting’ (self nudging’) is a behavioural design technique. Simply put, ‘boosts’ are short pieces of information that empower people to make informed choices. For example, the ‘hands, face, space’ slogan helped people to prevent the spread of COVID19. This simple but effective advice, presented in a memorable format, embedded a strategy that people used to make informed decisions when they felt uncertain.

This project will be targeted toward the completion of conflict-of-interest (COI) declarations. COI declarations are a key part of an organisation’s risk management strategy. Encouraging employees to proactively identify and declare potential or perceived conflicts of interest is essential for promoting ethical behaviour, complying with legal requirements, safeguarding reputation, and minimising risks.

Following recommendations by Professor Hills, various ‘boost’ formats will be prototyped and trialled with employees of the global pharmaceutical partner, to measure whether they lead to an immediate increase in conflict-of-interest (COI) declarations, therefore creating a meaningful reduction in risk to the organisation.

The framework will inform the design of two of BAD’s ‘behaviour change products’, used by clients worldwide. This innovation has the potential to enhance the learning experience of hundreds of thousands of employees over the coming year alone. And as an organisation, BAD will be differentiated from its larger competitors by embedding its methods in scientifically rigorous methods, unlocking opportunities for growth.

BAD has pioneered using broad principles from behavioural science to design and build digital interventions for global enterprises, having seen and experienced the pitfalls in the status quo.

Andrea Day, the CEO and Founder of BAD, explains “As a company focused on behaviour change, it’s critical to us that we ensure our practice is on firm grounds. We have been working with the team at Warwick and in particular Professor Hills, since BAD was formed. They have been a guiding light in all that we do and we are delighted with the opportunity to work more formally together on this Innovate UK research project.”

Dr Charlotte Hills, Behavioural Science Consultant at BAD, said: “Research bridging corporate training and behavioural science is so scarce – I’ve dreamt of doing this work for years. The fact that I’ll be leading the work in BAD’s first ever funded academic collaboration is beyond exciting.”