Behavioral Bridge is a one-week Summer School on Applied Behavioral Methods combined with a one-day research workshop, organized by the Behavioral Economics Institute at the Universidad Europea de Valencia (UEV) from 13 to 18 July 2026. The program is also designed as a training initiative of the ChallengeEU Alliance, remaining open to participants from other universities and to professionals from public and private organizations. 

Behavioral Bridge offers PhD students, junior faculty and professionals advanced training in behavioral methods on 4 key areas: Artificial Intelligence and Behavior: Digital Twins Replication (Dr. Tommaso Batistoni, Oxford), Market Research and Consumption: The WIne Sector (Professor Nikolaos Georgantzis, BSB), Climate Change Mitigation: Fostering Behavior (Professor Esther Blanco), Behavior and Healthier Lifestyles: Food Labels (Professor Paolo Crosetto). Each area will be formally covered by one scholar in the morning (in 2 sessions of 120 minutes each), leaving the afternoon for interactions with researchers and other participants. On Wednesday 15th, with attendance of all Summer School students, the BEI will be hosting the 5th Workshop in Behavioral Economics @ the Europea (WoBE@E), on the topic Applied Behavioral Research Methods.

The tuition fee for the Summer School (July 13th-14th-16th-17th) is €500, €400 for academics coming from a ChallengeEU institution (including PhD students). If you are only interested in attending the workshop, presenting your own work, please submit  an extended abstract by June 15th to hector.solaz@universidadeuropea.es. If you are interested in attending the Summer School or the workshop, please fill this form at your earliest convenience.

Organizing committee: Enrique Fatas, Lina Restrepo-Plaza, Hector Solaz, Emmanuel Armand.

PROGRAM

Monday July 13th Behavioral Methods applied to Market Research and Consumption: the Wine Sector

Professor Nikolaos Georgantzis

Professor Nikolaos Georgantzis is an economist and academic specializing in experimental and behavioral economics, Director of Wine and Spirits Business Lab at the International Burgundy School of Business in Dijon, France. He studied economics at the University of Piraeus, earned an MPhil from the University of Wales Swansea, and completed both his MA and PhD at the European University Institute. Professor Georgantzis' research spans behavioral economics with applications to wine, agriculture, and related behavioral decision-making fields

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Tuesday July 14th Behavioral Methods and Artificial Intelligence: Applying Digital Twins Models to Predict Behavior

Dr. Tommaso Batistoni

Dr Batistoni is a postdoctoral researcher and lead programmer at the Centre for Experimental Social Science at Nuffield College, University of Oxford. His research focuses on using Large Language Models to predict human behavior, creating digital twins that mimic actual decisions or large samples without incurring the often large costs of large RCTs. He has also studied the role of reputation in the provision of large-scale public goods and on contribution dynamics in non-linear social dilemmas. He works with empirical methods such alongside mathematical modeling, and he has also been listed as a former visiting PhD student and postdoctoral researcher in related academic research settings. 

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Wednesday July 15th 5th Workshop in Behavioral Economics @ Europea: Behavioral Research Methods

The 5th WoBE@E will include presentations of Prof. Georgantzis, Dr Batistoni and Prof. Croseto. If you are interested in presenting at the 5th WoBE@E, submit an extended abstract to Hector Solaz (hector.solaz@universidadeuropea.es). All papers will be presented in-person. If you are interested in presenting your work in the workshop, submit an extended abstract with the paper you want to present to hector.solaz@universidadeuropea.es by June 15th. There is a €100 registration fee for workshop speakers and attendants (other than the invited speakers). Workshop materials, coffee breaks, Lunch and Dinner will be provided to registered Workshop speakers. Unfortunately, we cannot provide travel and accommodation support (other than to the three keynote invited speakers). If you have questions, do not hesitate to contact us at hector.solaz@universidadeuropea.es

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Thursday July 16th Promoting Healthier Behavior: Designing Food Labels

Professor Paolo Crosetto

Prof. Crosetto is the Research Director at INRAE’s Grenoble Applied Economics Laboratory in France, where he works in behavioral methods with applications to innovation, risk, consumer behavior, and food consumption. Prof. Crosetto studied how food labels may help consumers making better and healthier daily decisions when buying groceries. His behavioral approach to the study of different food labels combines rigor with a . He earned his PhD in Economics from the University of Milan after earlier studies in international political sciences at the University of Turin, and his career has included research positions at the Max Planck Institute of Economics in Jena and LUISS Guido Carli in Rome.

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Friday July 17th Fostering Behavioral Support for Climate Change Policies

Professor Esther Blanco

Professor Blanco is a Professor of Economics at the University of Innsbruck and an Affiliated Faculty member of the Ostrom Workshop at Indiana University, with research centered on environmental, experimental, and behavioral economics, especially cooperation, climate action, and governance of shared resources. Her recent work also includes co-leading the Special Research Area on Credence Goods, Incentives and Behavior and serving as a Coordinating Lead Author for the Austrian climate assessment, using methods such as randomized controlled trials, field experiments, surveys, and interviews. Professor Blanco’s work on fostering climate change policies focuses on how individual behavior, social norms, and institutional design interact to shape support for climate action and actual climate-friendly behavior. She explicitly studies the “dynamic interaction between individual, social, and structural drivers of change for climate action” and is conducting a systematic evaluation of cooperative behavior, strategic behavior, and collective action to understand how they can strengthen support for climate policy.

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Saturday July 18th Social program

On Saturday, after a guided visit to Valencia old city center and a visit to the Centro de Arte Hortensia Herrero (a recently open museum of modern art), the Summer School will finish with a Valencian paella.