In this episode BIT's Lis Costa and Aisling Colclough look at two major pieces of work by the team. Firstly there is a discussion with Carolina Toth from BIT's New York office who has been working with mayors across the US on how to engage with people who are cautious or unwilling to get a COVID-19 vaccine when they become eligible.

With many from the communities hardest hit by the virus in the US, there has been an urgent need for effective messaging to ensure broad acceptance and uptake of the vaccine.

Carolina explains how the team set out to understand the issues at play in this important area and how they developed strategies that would be welcomed and effective.

Further reading on this project on the BIT blog in English here: https://www.bi.team/blogs/four-messages-that-can-increase-uptake-of-the-covid-19-vaccines/ 

And in Spanish here: https://www.bi.team/blogs/cuatro-mensajes-que-pueden-motivar-la-vacunacion-contra-el-covid-19/ 

Next Aisling and Lis are joined by Laura Litvine and Violette Gadenne from BIT France to talk about how they worked with the French Government to promote a more sustainable and circular economy by encouraging people to repair rather than replace tech products. The Government has developed a 'repairability index' for electronic goods in France and brought in BIT to look at how to build public awareness and engagement with the concept. It's a fascinating project with implications for sustainability and technology across the world.

Further reading can be found on the BIT blog in French here: https://www.bi.team/blogs/du-mal-a-resister-a-la-tentation-du-black-friday-quel-meilleur-jour-pour-penser-a-reparer-plutot-que-remplacer/ 

And in English here: https://www.bi.team/blogs/feeling-the-black-friday-impulse-try-repairing-not-replacing/ 

Jargon busting

Some terms mentioned in this episode that might not be familiar to all listeners:

Randomised control trials (RCTs) - In the context of BIT's work, RCTs in public policy are a method of testing and evaluating interventions. They were first developed in medical research but have since been used in many areas of social policy as well. They are generally considered to be at the top of the evidence hierarchies used by the UK Government's What Works Network, although not without controversy at times. They involve randomly allocating people to a treatment or a control group and then assessing their outcomes. If you would like to know more about RCTs and how to use them you can read our short paper on them: Test, Learn, Adapt.

BIT's Predictiv platform - BIT's proprietary testing platform - bi.team/bi-ventures/predictiv/