Our research generates impact that benefits wellbeing of clinical populations, working lives and society by conducting cutting-edge collaborative, interdisciplinary research into understanding behavioural dynamics and the science and practice of behaviour change.

We apply theory to understand and sustainably improve emotions, cognition, and wellbeing of both humans and animals, in line with our One Health, One Medicine strategic approach. We have close ties with NHS trusts, social care, local authorities, schools, third sector organisations, policymakers, and commercial partners. Capitalising on the rapid growth in artificial intelligence, machine learning and data analytics in healthcare allows for the prediction of outcomes and identification of patterns in areas of health and medicine where conventional research methods have over-simplified complex disease and care. By driving analytics that are actionable we are developing applications that have direct impact on public health, social care and clinical practice.

Our expertise in prevention and management of physical (e.g. chronic conditions – diabetes, cardiovascular, respiratory and atopic disease) and psychological (e.g., anxiety, depression, eating disorders) ill-health, and typical and atypical development (e.g. ADHD, dyscalculia, dyslexia, autism) covers the entire lifespan. We conduct research to inform healthcare practice (animal and human) and support wellbeing of healthcare workforces ensuring optimal staff and patient outcomes.

We investigate processes influencing behaviour change in contexts such as dietary habits and supplements, work-life balance (e.g. health care and veterinarian professionals), physical exercise, Sleep, neuromodulation, smoking cessation, and screening for genetic conditions, using our research to design and evaluate innovative technologies for diagnostic/therapeutic gain.

At the societal level we focus on supporting and sustaining positive interpersonal relations, equality, and generous inclusion by understanding how emotion influences these processes. This includes diverse populations across developmental time periods/cultures and extends to understanding how people behave in different environments, how these interactions affect environment quality and people’s wellbeing. We focus on understanding pro-environmental behaviour, sustainable consumption, and how behaviours in built and natural settings affect people’s physical and mental health.

Our collaboration with other faculties (FEPS, FASS) and Surrey’s Institutes (Institute of Education, People-centred AI Institute, and Institute for Sustainability), our Digital Health priority affords exciting novel avenues for research. The power of AI lies in Big Data and while there is a significant growth in available large-scale patient-level, and molecular data, as well as other social care and environment information, these resources are rarely integrated and mined jointly. Developing the tools that bring together data from disparate sources will serve researchers and students, by enabling integrative analyses that can produce novel insights and high impact publications.