In October 2020, at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) approached members of IOPS with a request for assistance with statistical analyses of behavioural data. In response, IOPS members volunteered to form the IOPS-RIVM Taskforce which has worked together with  RIVM to optimize statistical analyses of these important data.

The IOPS-RIVM Taskforce has offered consultancy on the topics of psychometrics, missing data, and longitudinal data analysis; results of the relevant studies have since been reported in parliament and have served to inform policy.

In the wake of this successful collaboration, members of the IOPS-RIVM Taskforce have in addition been involved in designing several large behavioural research projects in the context of mass testing programs implemented by the Ministry of Health, Welfare, and Sport (VWS).

Oisín Ryan defended his thesis Dynamic Systems and Causal Structures in Psychology: Connecting Data and Theory, at the University of Utrecht. Read more.

Sara van Erp defended her thesis Bayesian Structural Equation Modeling: The Power of the Prior, at the University of Tilburg. Read more.

Tessa Blanken defended her thesis Changing perspectives on insomnia and depression: From symptoms to system, at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Read more.

Jonas Haslbeck defended his thesis Modeling psychopathology. From data models to formal theories, at the University of Amsterdam. Read more.

Nitin Bhushan defended his thesis Correlation, causation, and dynamics on June 4, 2020, at the University of Groningen. Read more.