PROGRAMME
Venue: Orchard Hotel
Day 1
Theme: Synergising behavioural and implementation science research to enhance equity, precision, and behavioural change in healthcare interventions
| Time | Session Details |
|---|---|
| 7:30 – 8:30 | Registration and welcome coffee |
| 8:30 – 9:00 | Opening ceremony and welcome addresses |
| 9:00 – 9:45 | Keynote 1 | Equity in Health Research Implementation This keynote examines what equity-centered implementation demands in practice: co-designing strategies with patients, communities, and frontline providers, and confronting the structural barriers — geography, workforce, language, financing — that drive unequal uptake across Asian health systems. Speaker: Professor Rama Vaidyanathan BARU |
| 9:45 – 10:30 | Plenary Panel 1 | Cross-Sector Pathways to Equitable Implementation Across Asia
The plenary panel brings together researchers and practitioners to address how social marginalisation, health access gaps, and economic precarity intersect in real-world implementation contexts; the structural barriers facing migrants, low-income communities, and populations excluded by technology-driven health solutions; and evidence-based and community-informed approaches to equitable implementation design and delivery. Speakers: Professor Rama Vaidyanathan BARU, Professor Brian J. HALL, and more to be announced |
| 10:30 – 10:45 | Coffee/Tea Break |
| 10:45 – 12:00 | Oral and Lightning Presentations |
| 12:00 – 13:15 | Lunch and Poster Presentations |
| 13:15 – 14:00 | Plenary Panel 2 | Applying Co-Design Approaches to Improve Real-World Health Programmes
The plenary panel explores real-world programme experience to show how participatory approaches, including co-creation and co-design, improve intervention relevance, uptake, and sustainability, and how behavioural science methods strengthen co-design across diverse and underserved populations. In addition, as AI tools reshape how interventions are developed and delivered — in health, education, and beyond. Attendees will leave with practical co-design tools, a sharper equity lens, and a clearer view of what responsible, community-centred implementation looks like in an AI-assisted world. Speakers: Associate Professor Emi KIYOTA, Dr. Laura MARTINENGO, Ms. Ai Ling SIM-DEVADAS |
| 14:00 – 14:45 | Plenary Panel 3 | Building the Workforce: Practitioner Capacity and Training Models for Behavioural and Implementation Science Across Singapore and Southeast Asia, the field is actively building the practitioner workforce that behavioural and implementation science (BIS) demands. This panel maps what the region is doing to build capacity in the Asia region and the ongoing challenges. Speakers present current initiatives spanning structured mentorship, practice-embedded training, and Continuing Education and Training workshops, examining how academia-practice feedback loops have operationalised BIS at the frontline and sustained it over time. The panel then turns to infrastructure: shared resource libraries, translated toolkits, fellowships, and visiting scholar exchanges that move BIS competency across institutions and geographies. Speakers: Professor Lijing L. YAN, Dr. Jessica NG, and more to be announced |
| 14:45 – 15:30 | Plenary Panel 4 | How Do We Promote Longevity? Behavioural and Implementation Science as a Vehicle for Translating Research into Practice in Healthy Ageing
Ageing populations across Asia face a defining implementation challenge: the evidence base for healthy ageing interventions is strong, yet equitable, sustained uptake at population scale remains out of reach. This plenary panel argues that promoting longevity demands more than effective interventions — it demands the science of how those interventions get adopted, delivered, and sustained. Speakers draw on Singapore's Healthier SG initiative to show how BIS frameworks, co-designed strategies, and implementation outcome measurement close the gap between research evidence and real-world practice. BIS is not an adjunct to the translational pipeline. It is the vehicle that turns evidence into impact. Speakers: Professor LEE Chien Earn, Associate Professor DING Yew Yong, Dr. Yanhong (Catherine) DONG |
| 15:30 – 15:45 | Coffee/Tea Break |
| 15:45 – 16:45 | Plenary Panel 5 | The Asian Society for Implementation Science: Connecting the Field and Advancing Together Implementation science in Asia is not a transplant of Western frameworks — it is a field taking shape on its own terms. This session introduces the Asian Society for Implementation Science, a growing network of academic expertise committed to advancing the discipline across the region. Speakers articulate what implementation science looks like in Asian health and social care contexts: the systems it operates within, the cultural and structural factors that shape adoption, and the research priorities that emerge from empirical work on the ground. The session closes by presenting a regional research agenda — evidence-driven, contextually grounded, and built to move the field forward where it matters most. Speakers: Professor Nick SEVDALIS, Professor Roman XU, Professor Sophia CHAN, Associate Professor Archana SHRESTHA and Associate Professor Mathuros TIPAYAMONGKHOLGUL |
| 16:45 – 17:15 | Plenary Panel 6 | Aligning a Regional Behavioural and Implementation Science Agenda A panel discussion brings together the Asian Society for Implementation Science and the Singapore Society for Behavioural Health to address two questions directly: what does a regional BIS agenda look like in practice, and what can researchers do now to accelerate science-to-practice translation? Panellists represent both research and practitioner communities, keeping the discussion grounded in real-world application. Speakers: Professor Qian YANG, Dr. Jumana HASHIM, Ms. SOH Lai Yee |
| 17:15 – 17:30 | Day 1 closing ceremony |
| 17:30 – 18:30 | Networking event and light reception |
Venue: Orchard Hotel
Day 2
Theme: Behavioural and implementation science for digital health, AI, and policy: from research innovation to real-world impact
| Time | Session Details |
|---|---|
| 7:30 – 8:30 | Registration and welcome coffee |
| 8:30 – 8:45 | Day 2 opening |
| 8:45 – 9:30 | Keynote 2 | Longevity Is Personal: How Behavioural Science and Digital Health Impact Healthspan
This keynote will explore how we are reshaping healthspan and longevity with Behavioral and Implementation Science (BIS), AI and digital medicine. To future-proof health and enable durable behaviour change at scale, the boundaries of traditional BIS must be redrawn. We will show how behaviour can be engineered, not merely encouraged. Speaker: Professor Dean HO |
| 9:30 – 10:30 | Plenary Panel 7 | Behavioural and Implementation Science for the Development and Scaling of AI
How can behavioral insights and implementation science be used to improve the development and uptake of AI-enabled health technologies, focusing on consumer trust, product scaling, and responsible AI governance? This session explores how AI and digital tools are changing the design, delivery, and evaluation of behavioural and implementation interventions, and what cross-sector involvement can do to mobilise digital solutions from pilots to safe, equitable, scalable impact. Speaker: Madame Rahayu MAHZAM, Professor Giuseppe VELTRI, and more to be announced |
| 10:30 – 11:00 | Coffee/Tea Break |
| 11:00 – 12:30 | Oral and Lightning Presentations |
| 12:30 – 13:45 | Lunch and Poster Presentations |
| 13:45 – 14:30 | Keynote 3 | Getting Incentives Right: What Actually Changes Behaviour
Incentives work — but only when they fit the context. This keynote unpacks why so many behaviour change efforts fail, tracing the problem to poorly chosen incentives, wrong levels of reinforcement, and an underestimation of behavioural complexity. Through causal evidence from RCTs and real-world interventions, this keynote explores what actually moves behaviour and why intuition routinely misleads. The discussion points toward a broader rethinking of how population health programmes are planned and evaluated, and what a mature science of incentives can contribute to health systems. Speaker: Professor Uri GNEEZY |
| 14:30 – 15:15 | Plenary Panel 8 | Implementing Population Health Programmes at Scale
How do behavioural and implementation science actually move from journal articles to nationwide impact? This plenary panel brings together experts to unpack what it takes to design, launch, and sustain change at scale, and where behavioural and implementation insights genuinely shape policy. Panellists will speak candidly about the levers that mattered, the trade-offs made under real-world constraints, and the measurement challenges of evaluating impact across whole populations. The session will close on transferable lessons for chronic disease, healthy aging, and preventive care across Asia — and the conditions under which behavioural and implementation science meaningfully shape policy. Speaker: Associate Professor LOW Lian Leng, Associate Professor LEONG Ching, and more to be announced |
| 15:15 – 15:30 | Coffee/Tea Break |
| 15:30 – 16:30 | Plenary Panel 9 | From Research to Social Impact: Perspectives from Regional and International Research Funders What happens to your funded research after publication? What infrastructure and resources are available to enhance the societal impact of funded academic research? This plenary panel invites speakers from major regional and international funding bodies and academic institutions to address how their organizations actively invest in translating, adapting, and embedding evidence into health systems and the implications that these funding structures and systems have on academic research systems. Speaker: Professor TAN Say Beng, and more to be announced |
| 16:30 – 17:00 | Closing keynotes |
| 17:00 – 17:30 | Award and conference closing ceremony |
Venue: University Town, National University of Singapore
Day 3
Post-Conference Workshops
Please choose one of the following options:
Option 1: ONE Full day workshop
Option 2: ONE Morning Workshop + ONE Afternoon Workshop (for a total of 2 half-day workshops)
Concurrent workshop 1
(WS-F1) Behavioural and Implementation Sciences in Health: Advanced
Led by Professor Nick SEVDALIS, Associate Professor Robyn MILDON, Dr Laura MARTINENGO
This full-day workshop offers rigorous, hands-on training in advanced methods at the intersection of behavioural and implementation science. The morning session, led by Robyn Mildon and Laura Martinengo, focuses on co-design approaches for developing contextually grounded health interventions. The afternoon, led by Nick Sevdalis, shifts to hybrid trial designs — equipping participants to simultaneously evaluate intervention effectiveness and implementation. Suitable for researchers and practitioners seeking to strengthen their methodological toolkit and produce work that is both scientifically robust and ready for real-world application. Attendees will receive practical guidance on selecting and justifying a co-design or hybrid trial approach for your next study.
Concurrent workshop 2
(WS-F2) Qualitative Thematic Analysis of Textual Data
Led by Professor Max BERGMAN (Professor of Social Research and Methodology at the University of Basel, Switzerland)
This full-day workshop offers a practical and conceptually grounded introduction to qualitative thematic analysis for researchers in behavioural and implementation science. Participants will learn how to analyse non-numerical evidence in behaviour change research and implementation studies, including how to prepare data for thematic analysis, code textual and visual material, build a codebook, develop themes, and write up, present, and defend findings that are credible and actionable.
The workshop applies thematic analysis across the qualitative sources researchers in this field routinely encounter, including interview and focus group transcripts with patients, clinicians, and implementers, open-ended responses from process evaluations, diary data, programme documents, social media content relevant to health communication, incident narratives, and policy materials.
By the end of the session, participants will be able to prepare textual data for analysis, conduct a basic thematic analysis, develop and defend themes aligned with research, practice, or policy questions, and apply these skills to qualitative evidence relevant to behavioural and implementation science. Participants are encouraged to bring their own textual datasets.
Concurrent workshop 1
(WS-AM1) Behavioural and Implementation Research & Practice Project Clinic
Led by BISI Centre faculty and affiliates, including Professor David HIPGRAVE, Professor Qian YANG, Associate Professor TAN Woan Shin, Dr. Elaine LUM, Dr. Grace SUM, and more to be announced…
Bring your live project and leave with a clearer path forward. In this clinic-style session, participants present in-progress work for structured group discussion and expert mentoring from our team at BISI and our affiliated members.
During this session, we invite you to submit details on your project (i.e. challenge) from research or practice. We will diagnose implementation bottlenecks, then draw on behavioural and implementation science to sharpen your project design. Dedicated one-on-one sessions with our expert faculty provide personalised guidance tailored to your specific challenges — whether you are designing an intervention, navigating scale-up, or bridging the gap between evidence and practice. By the end of this session, you will receive a concrete diagnosis of a bottleneck in your current project and at least one expert-recommended strategy to address it.
Concurrent workshop 2
(WS-AM2) Getting Published: A Journal Editors’ Panel
Led by Professor Nick SEVDALIS, Professor Brian J. HALL, Professor Roman XU, Associate Professor LEONG Ching, Dr. Rayner TAN
Demystifying the publication process for implementation and behavioural science research. In this half-day workshop, a panel of journal editors shares frank, practical guidance on what it takes to get published — from framing a manuscript to navigating peer review. Sessions are designed with early-career researchers and those new to the field in mind, covering what editors look for, common reasons for rejection, and how to position your work at the intersection of behavioural and implementation science. Leave with actionable strategies to strengthen your next submission. Obtain direct insight into how editors at Q1 implementation and behavioural science journals evaluate manuscripts, with actionable framing advice for your next submission.
|
Speaker |
Journal and editorial role |
|
Professor Brian J. Hall |
Editor-in-Chief of Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences |
|
Professor Roman Xu |
Editor-in-Chief of Implementation Science Communications |
|
Professor Nick Sevdalis |
Co-Editor-in-Chief Frontiers in Health Services, Implementation Science Section |
|
Associate Professor Leong Ching |
Editorial board member of Behavioural Public Policy |
|
Assistant Professor Rayner Tan |
Associate Editor at the International Journal of Behavioural Medicine |
Catering will be provided to all workshop registrants.
Concurrent workshop 1
(WS-PM1) Design Thinking for Behavioural and Implementation Science
By Professor Ayelet GNEEZY and Dr. Jumana HASHIM
This half-day workshop with Prof Ayelet Gneezy and Dr. Jumana Hashim introduce design thinking as a practical approach to solving complex implementation challenges. Drawing on principles of human-centred design, participants will explore how iterative problem framing, rapid prototyping, and creative testing can strengthen behavioural and implementation science projects. The session bridges rigorous research methodology with applied design practice — offering new tools for those working at the interface of evidence generation and real-world impact. Through this workshop, you will learn how to use a human-centred framework for developing new, or improving existing, research projects targeting behaviour change.
Concurrent workshop 2
(WS-PM2) Cluster-Randomised and Hybrid Trial Designs for Implementation Researchers (Beginner Level)
By Professor Lijing L. YAN
This workshop introduces researchers new to trial methodology to the fundamentals of pragmatic cluster-randomised controlled trials (cRCTs) and hybrid effectiveness-implementation designs. Participants will learn when and why to adopt these approaches, how to select among hybrid trial types, and how to navigate the practical challenges of conducting rigorous trials in complex real-world settings. Drawing on case studies and firsthand experience, the session equips implementation researchers with the methodological grounding to generate policy-relevant, broadly generalisable evidence.
Concurrent workshop 3
(WS-PM3) From Insight to Intervention: A Behavioural Design Sprint for Health
A mini-nudgeathon for designing practical, testable behaviour-change interventions
By Professor Ivo VLAEV
Many health challenges persist not because people lack information, but because everyday environments, routines, incentives, social norms, and cognitive biases make the desired behaviour difficult to perform. This interactive 4-hour workshop introduces participants to a practical behavioural design method for turning health-system challenges into testable interventions.
Drawing on nudge theory, the MINDSPACE framework, and real-world health applications, participants will learn how to move from a broad problem — such as improving adherence, uptake, patient flow, screening, or staff practice — to a clearly defined target behaviour, a behavioural diagnosis, and a feasible intervention concept. Working in small groups, participants will develop and refine intervention ideas, then stress-test them using the APEASE criteria: Acceptability, Practicability, Effectiveness, Affordability, Spillover effects, and Equity.
By the end of the workshop, participants will be able to translate complex health challenges into specific target behaviours, apply behavioural diagnosis techniques, use MINDSPACE and nudge principles to design context-sensitive interventions, and assess intervention options against practical implementation criteria. Each group will leave with a structured intervention concept and a realistic plan for testing it in practice.
Programme is subject to changes.