Jonathan's work sits at the intersection of three worlds: coaching and clinical practice, organisations, and research. Across each of these, the same question has guided his work: how do evidence-based ideas become useful in the moments where people actually have to act, relate, lead, decide, and change?
Jonathan Dowling, PhD
Founder of Evidence Based Change, a platform for turning behavioural science into practical tools that can be used, studied, and improved in real-world settings.
Why I Built Evidence Based Change
I built EBC to help solve issues I see myself and other coaches, clinicians, researchers, and organisations face every day.
Having worked with many data collection, assessment, learning, and intervention platforms across research and applied settings, I've seen the great benefits they bring, but also the many ways they do not support what we are trying to do. Evidence Based Change is partly a response to that experience: a more flexible platform for using theory-informed tools, practical exercises, coaching and learning support, meaningful data collection, and real-world theory testing.
In short: Evidence Based Change is built from three hats I have worn, and continue to wear every day: working with clients in coaching and clinical change, navigating complex challenges in organisations and elite performance, and conducting theory-driven research on how change happens and why.
EBC's purpose is to help good theory become usable practice, and to help practice generate better theory. In contextual behavioural science terms, the aim is to predict and influence human behaviour with precision, scope, and depth. In EBC terms, the aim is to make that work usable and scalable in the moments that matter.
The experience behind Evidence Based Change
Coaching and clinical change
Jonathan has worked close to the point where change has to become usable: people trying to respond differently under pressure, uncertainty, distress, habit, identity, values, relationships, and real-life demands.
Organisations
His applied training as an organisational psychologist included psychometrics, assessment and development centres, and research with senior healthcare leaders. He has delivered ACT and ALIVE-based training across organisational, healthcare, coaching, and high-performance contexts.
Research
Jonathan has developed theory-informed measures and interventions, including work presented in an invited ACBS World Conference keynote with Professor Frank Bond. Evidence Based Change is designed as a platform for practical delivery and theory testing.
My Approach: From theory to tools people can use
Jonathan has worked in applied organisational, healthcare, leadership, coaching, and high-performance settings, including training with UK Sport and Olympic sport psychology professionals, and applied research in high-stakes settings including the Coast Guard.
He has held academic roles at the Institute of Management Studies at Goldsmiths, University of London, and later at the University of Sussex Business School as Assistant Professor in Leadership and Innovation, where he also convened the School's doctoral-level quantitative data analytics module. In 2026, Sussex Business School was ranked number one in the UK for Business and Management research income by the Chartered Association of Business Schools.
The common thread across his applied and academic work is a theory-driven, evidence-informed, data-led approach grounded in evidence-based psychology, contextual behavioural science, existential philosophy, psychometric development, and cultivating high performance in domains such as leadership, communication, work, sport, and music.
Jonathan's work on Evidence Based Change draws on experience designing and teaching applied intervention content, alongside research methods and data analytics. At Goldsmiths, University of London, and the University of Sussex, he has coordinated and delivered modules on MSc and PhD programmes, including Training, Coaching, and Counselling; Leadership, Engagement, and Motivation; and interdisciplinary research design and quantitative data analytics. He also designed and coordinated the Executive Education Certificate in Purposeful Leadership.
This combination matters for EBC: the platform is designed to support multiple sides of applied behaviour change science, helping people deliver meaningful coaching, learning, and intervention content, support organisational change, and collect useful data for insight, progress evaluation, and hypothesis testing.
Examples of this unified approach can be seen in the courses he and Professor Frank Bond developed with 29k, a non-profit foundation, based on their systematic ALIVE research programme. These included the Purposeful Leadership course, which was certified by Goldsmiths, University of London.
As part of the Grand Challenges for Human Flourishing, Templeton World Charity Foundation also added their ALIVE-based proposal on developing a conceptually clear and scientifically testable account of human flourishing to its Ideas Database.
Interested in using Evidence Based Change?
Visit our home page to learn more about the platform and how it can help you, or join the waitlist for updates and news on platform access, research pilots, and early opportunities to use EBC for coaching, organisational work, or research.
Jonathan and Professor Frank Bond co-created ALIVE, and provide ALIVE-based psychometrics and online ALIVE programmes through a separate platform. For queries about Evidence Based Change or ALIVE, contact info@evidencebasedchange.com.