16th EUSPR Conference – 23 to 26 September 2025, Berlin, Germany
Our theme this year is ‘The prevention continuum: Implications for research and practice’ and our keynotes and special sessions will focus on the continuum at the intersection of different areas of prevention, inter- and transdisciplinary prevention practice (e.g., in medicine, education or social work), interdisciplinary prevention science as well as epistemological differences across disciplines, countries, and prevention systems and cultures.
Keynote speakers Andreas Beelmaan, Tamar Mendelson and Christine Heim will participate in a Round Table Discussion on Thursday, 25th September.
Friedrich Schiller UniversityKeynote Speaker
Developmental prevention of radicalisation: Concepts, state of research and current findings
John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public HealthKeynote Speaker
From Evidence to Impact: Advancing School-Based Mental Health Promotion
Charité – Universitätsmedizin BerlinKeynote Speaker
Neurobiological Consequences of Traumatization and Preventive Measurements
Warwick Business School, University of WarwickKeynote Speaker,
EUSPR President’s Award 2025
The i-frame and the s-frame: How focusing on individual-level solutions has led behavioral public policy astray
| Keynote Speaker | Short Biography | Title | Abstract |
| Andreas Beelmaan | Andreas Beelmann, PhD., is Professor for Research Synthesis, Intervention and Evaluation at the Institute of Psychology at the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena, Germany, and co-founder and former director of the Centre for Research on Right-Wing Extremism, Civic Education and Social Integration (KomRex). Since 2023, he is also CEO of the German Forum for Crime Prevention Foundation (DFK), which is concerned with the transfer of scientific findings into political decision-making and prevention practice. His research focuses on the prevention of developmental and behavioural disorders in childhood and adolescence, including antisocial behavior, prejudice, crime, and violent radicalization. He has published over 200 articles and several book including comprehensive reviews and meta-analyses. Within the last five years he has done several studies on the development and prevention of radicalization in young people. | Developmental prevention of radicalisation: Concepts, state of research and current findings | In view of rising prevalence of political crimes in many countries, there is a high necessity for scientific research in the field of radicalization prevention. This presentation introduces the concept of developmental prevention for protecting young people from radicalization and extremism. Based on a social-developmental model of radicalization, existing concepts of radicalization prevention such as social training programs, contact interventions, civic education, service learning, counter narratives or media training will be presented and discussed according to their outcomes and the state of their scientific foundation. Overall, a number of promising approaches exist with sound theoretical framework and at least some indication for evidence. In addition, the results of two evaluation studies will be presented, one dealing with the long-term effects of a prejudice prevention programme (PARTS) and the other with the effects of a more recent radicalization prevention programme for adolescents (“Bleib menschlich/Stay human”). These studies additionally showed that developmental prevention could be a promising route to strengthen young people´s resistance against radicalization and extremism. However, it is currently very difficult to assess the full potential for preventing radicalization trajectories because high-quality, long-term evaluations have been lacking. Thus, the presentation will be closed with the statement that there is an urgent need for further conceptual and evaluation research to address the challenges of radicalization and political crimes. |
| Tamar Mendelson | Dr. Tamar Mendelson is a Bloomberg Professor of American Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She directs the Johns Hopkins Center for Adolescent Health (CAH) and chairs the Adolescent Health area steering committee of the Bloomberg American Health Initiative. Trained as a clinical psychologist, her work addresses the prevention of mental health issues and promotion of positive development in adolescents, with an emphasis on young people growing up in marginalized communities. A key focus in her research is on adapting and testing evidence-based interventions so that they can be feasibly and sustainably embedded in systems, such as schools, that serve families and youth. She takes a community-engaged approach in her work and seeks feedback and involvement from young people. | From Evidence to Impact: Advancing School-Based Mental Health Promotion | A growing evidence base demonstrates the mental health benefits of school-based prevention strategies, but scaling and sustaining these prevention efforts effectively is extremely difficult. This presentation will highlight opportunities and challenges related to embedding mental health-related prevention strategies within schools. Evidence-based approaches at different levels of the prevention continuum will be presented, including ongoing research on RAP Club, a trauma-informed universal intervention to promote mental health across the transition into high school. Best practices for implementation, sustainment, and dissemination will also be discussed, with a focus on the role of research, practice, and policy. In this context, recommendations will be presented for advancing the field of school-based prevention to increase public health impact on young people’s mental health. |
| Christine Heim | Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin | Neurobiological Consequences of Traumatization and Preventive Measurements (working title) | TBA |
| Nick Chater | Nick Chater is professor of Behavioural Science at Warwick Business School. His research focuses on the cognitive and social foundations of rationality, with applications to business and public policy. His research has won awards including the British Psychological Society’s Spearman Medal (1996); the Experimental Psychology Society Prize (1997); and the Cognitive Science Society’s life-time achievement award, the David E Rumelhart Prize (2023). He is a co-founder of the research consultancy Decision Technology; has served on the advisory board of the Behavioural Insight Team (popularly known as the ‘Nudge Unit’); and been a member of the UK government’s Climate Change Committee. | The i-frame and the s-frame: How focusing on individual-level solutions has led behavioral public policy astray (Nick Chater & George Loewenstein) | An influential line of thinking in behavioral science, to which the two authors have long subscribed, is that many of society’s most pressing problems can be addressed cheaply and effectively at the level of the individual, without modifying the system in which the individual operates. We now believe this was a mistake, along with, we suspect, many colleagues in both the academic and policy communities. Results from such interventions have been disappointingly modest. But more importantly, they have guided many (though by no means all) behavioral scientists to frame policy problems in individual, not systemic, terms: To adopt what we call the “i-frame,” rather than the “s-frame.” The difference may be more consequential than i-frame advocates have realized, by deflecting attention and support away from s-frame policies. Indeed, highlighting the i-frame is a long-established objective of corporate opponents of concerted systemic action such as regulation and taxation. We illustrate our argument briefly for six policy problems, and in depth with the examples of climate change, obesity, retirement savings, and pollution from plastic waste. We argue that the most important way in which behavioral scientists can contribute to public policy is by employing their skills to develop and implement value-creating system-level change. |