About
The Behavioural and Cultural Insights (BCI) Hub provides a knowledge-sharing platform for evidence and good practice related to the barriers and drivers of healthy practices.
Find out more about the BCI Hub below.
What are behavioural and cultural insights?
Behavioural and Cultural Insights (BCI) is an area within public health that explores the factors that affect health behaviours. Using behavioural and cultural research and insights, BCI aims to improve the outcomes of health policies, services, and communication. BCI draws on disciplines such as behavioural science and economics, anthropology, sociology, psychology, and cultural studies. Adding the cultural facet to behavioural insights intends to highlight the importance of the sociocultural context, societal and health systems and structures alongside individual factors when assessing and addressing health behaviours.
Who is the BCI Hub for?
The Hub is designed for anyone who is interested in learning about BCI or for those who are already working in this area. This can include students, academics, researchers, professionals, health policy makers in national, regional, and local governments as well as youth and the public.
How to use the BCI Hub
The BCI-Hub is designed to share and showcase evidence and good practice. The site brings together content from past, present and future projects related to behavioural and cultural insights, created by both WHO and external partners.
The platform features insights from countries around the world, with a focus on those in Europe and Central Asia. The examples show how BCI is applied to various health focus areas, such as cancer, antimicrobial resistance, vaccines and immunization, the health impacts of climate change and rising mental health challenges.
The Knowledge Hub was developed and is maintained by the University of Exeter's WHO Collaborating Centre for Culture and Health in partnership with the Behavioural and Cultural Insights Unit at WHO/Europe.
Who are we?
In April 2020, WHO/Europe established the Behavioural and Cultural Insights Unit as a flagship initiative to coordinate and lead efforts to provide technical guidance and expertise to countries on best practices for incorporating this approach into health policy and planning.
Key areas of work
The BCI Unit works with Member States to advance the use of evidence-based approaches for understanding, enabling, supporting, and promoting positive health-related behaviours. The work of the BCI Unit at the WHO Regional Office for Europe spans four key areas:
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support to country projects;
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advocacy and partnerships;
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capacity-building; and
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evidence and guidance.
To find out more, click here.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has designated the Wellcome Centre for Cultures and Environments of Health at the University of Exeter as the WHO Collaborating Centre for Behavioural and Cultural Insights. The Centre’s research activities across the medical humanities and social sciences provide interdisciplinary research support and technical guidance on behavioural and cultural Insights into health.
The Centre works with WHO to produce guidance for policymakers and to run events designed to generate new approaches to public health, informed by behavioural and cultural insights. It explores how the humanities and social sciences can be used to develop and evaluate innovative public health initiatives.
Co-directed by Professor Mark Jackson and Dr Felicity Thomas, the Collaborating Centre is supported by the Wellcome Trust and the University of Exeter.
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WHO is the public health body of the United Nations. WHO/Europe, based in Copenhagen, Denmark, is one of WHO's 6 regional offices around the world.
It serves the WHO European Region, which comprises 53 countries, covering a geographical region from the Atlantic to the Pacific oceans.
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