Anu Realo is a personality and cross-cultural psychologist, currently a Professor at the University of Warwick and Tallinn University and Visiting Professor at the University of Tartu. She is a member of the Academia Europaea and the Estonian Academy of Sciences. Her research focuses on cultural and individual variation in personality, subjective well-being, and social capital. She has collaborated extensively with researchers across a range of disciplines and cultures and has published numerous articles in peer-reviewed international journals.

The role of behavioural insights (BI) for policymaking is both increasing and sometimes hotly debated. This session brings together practitioners to share their experiences in applying behavioural science to policy challenges. The presentations will cover a range of topics, including pandemic preparedness, consumer protection, and environmental sustainability. The session will also focus on how to unlock BI’s full potential for policy, highlighting the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration, early integration in the policymaking process, and actionability and scalability for impact, as well as the value of a more systematic behavioural systems approach.

ERSTE Foundation and Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies at the University of Tartu partnered in 3-year academic research project “Human-centred approach for increasing financial well-being of individuals and societies”. As a result, they redefine financial well-being (FWB) as having security, freedom, and pleasure in life, not just wealth. Through rigorous research, they bring a human perspective to banking and policy, and develop evidence-based strategies to enhance individuals' and societies' financial well-being. The research project had three main stages – understanding, assessing and influencing FWB. In this session, key findings from these are presented:

IAREP Kahneman Keynote Lecturer Liam Delaney is Professor and Head of the Department of Psychological and Behavioural Science at LSE. His career spans economics, psychology, and public policy. From 2017-2020, he was Professor of Economics at University College Dublin, leading the MSc in Behavioural Economics and Geary Institute Experimental Lab. He previously led Stirling’s Behavioural Science Centre. A Fulbright Fellow at Princeton and MSCA fellow, he has published extensively on mental health and economic outcomes and developed a widely used framework for integrating ethical considerations into behavioural science applications.

Elisabeth Costa is the Chief of Innovation and Partnerships at the Behavioural Insights Team. Elisabeth leads global efforts for building new, long-term partnerships and collaborations across the team, as well as developing BIT’s emerging areas of expertise and service offers. Her particular expertise is economic policy and digital markets. Elisabeth is currently a Senior Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics in the Department of Psychological and Behavioural Science. Prior to joining the Behavioural Insights Team, Elisabeth held senior roles at the Australian Treasury and completed her postgraduate studies at Harvard Law School.

We invite behavioural insights practitioners (and interested researchers) who engage with complexity, systems and systems change in their work to an interactive, facilitated session. We will summarise and explore the relevance of current issues and criticisms re: behaviour and systems, discuss your experience of the tensions and synergies raised, explore participants' practical work around and solutions, and document knowledge, action and capability gaps. We will share some reflections from Australian BSci practitioners and researchers as part of the session. (Abstract & Session Outline Linked).

Jaan Aru is an associate professor at the University of Tartu working on neuroscience, artificial intelligence, and the effect of technology on the human mind. He has published over 50 international scientific articles and two national bestsellers about the brain and creativity. For his efforts in popularizing science, he has received the national science communication prize in Estonia, twice. In 2019 he was awarded the Young Scientist Prize from the President of Estonia. In 2024 he received the Estonian National Research Award.