COFAC / Lusófona University Portugal
Lead: Prof. Dr. Rui Gaspar
Role: WP1 Lead
COFAC (Cooperativa de Formação e Animação Cultural) leads the participatory framework development in WP1, coordinating stakeholder interviews, focus groups, and consumer research across partner countries. The team will work directly with farmers, veterinarians, and policymakers to co-design a biosecurity framework that reflects the realities of non-intensive farming. COFAC also contributes to legislative analysis, pilot testing activities, and the production of communication materials to ensure the project’s results are accessible and relevant to diverse audiences.
Tasks: Stakeholder engagement, consumer research, framework co-design
Funder
Rui Gaspar
He is Associate Professor at Lusófona University, coordinator of the master’s in Social and Organizational Psychology and Principal Investigator at the HEI-Lab: Digital Human-Environment Interaction Lab. He is member of the World Health Organization (WHO-Europe) Technical Advisory Group on Risk Communication, Community Engagement and Infodemic Management (RCCE-IM), technical consultant in Behavioural Sciences and Health Literacy for the Portuguese Directorate-General for Health, scientific committee member (Risk Communication panel) at the Portuguese Food Safety & Economic Authority. He is Board Member of the Society for Risk Analysis – International and member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Risk Research. He is past-President of the Society for Risk Analysis – Europe (SRA-E), past member of the Behavioural Sciences Task Force to fight COVID-19, nominated by the Portuguese government, and former Associate Editor of the journal Human Behaviour & Emerging Technologies. His research focuses on Emerging Risks Perception (natural and technological), Risk and Crisis Communication and the use of social media during crisis.