Published on July 7, 2022 – On the 22nd of June, the ‘Be Prepared’ consortium was launched at the RIVM headquarters in Bilthoven, the Netherlands. In the coming 3 years, the consortium will conduct in-depth research about improving pandemic preparedness from a behavioural perspective.
‘Be Prepared’ (Behavioural Science for Pandemic Preparedeness) is a collaboration between the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) and four Dutch Universities: University of Amsterdam, Radboud University, Utrecht University and University of Twente. Researchers from ACHC and ASCoR (Julia van Weert, Bas van den Putte, Eline Smit, Saar Mollen, Mark Boukes, Toni van der Meer, Nida Gizem Yilmaz and Adriana Solovei) will analyze the effects of media use and interpersonal communication (Word of Mouth) on health behaviour, and specifically adherence to the preventive measures during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Netherlands. Other topics researched within the consortium will be, among others, behavioural determinants, support for pandemic measures, and wellbeing.
The research will be based on data that have been collected by RIVM’s Corona Behavioural Unit since the beginning of the pandemic (March 2020). So far, a longitudinal dataset consisting of 20 waves and more than 200,000 respondents has been gathered. More information about the data collected by the Behavioural Unit can be found here (in Dutch).
Consortium picture taken by Paul Voorham