About

About Us

Founded in 2021

Franziska Hofer and Angela Bearth founded HF Partners with the vision of establishing it as an internationally recognised expert organisation in the field of human-centred safety and security.

HF Partners is specialised in the following topics in human-centred security and safety:

  • Resilience of critical infrastructure and organisations to human-made or -related threats and unlawful acts (e.g. terrorism, cybersecurity)
  • Infrastructure and processes that aim at protecting, maintaining and increasing the health and welfare of humans and animals
  • Informed decision making and prevention of harm through hazardous chemicals (i.e., biocidal products, chemical waste, contamination)
  • Improved decision-making processes for authorities, police and judiciary (e.g. debiasing, risk perception, human-AI cooperation)
  • (Digital) service solutions to foster risk competence, evidence-based decisions and human-centred strategies to manage risks 

Management Board

Dr. Franziska Hofer

Founder / CEO

Franziska holds a degree in Cognitive Psychology from the University of Zurich and a PhD in Human Factors. During her doctoral studies, she led a research group comprising social scientists, software developers, and data scientists, developing human-centred training applications to enhance aviation security. Between 2007 and 2021, she initiated several interdisciplinary R&D projects at the intersection of law enforcement, aviation security, high-reliability organisations, and social science, serving as both senior scientist and principal investigator (PI). In 2013, she co-founded brainability, a transdisciplinary organisation dedicated to individual and system transformation.

Find her publications here.

Dr. Angela Bearth

Founder / CEO

Angela holds a degree in Social and Health Psychology from the University of Zurich and a PhD in Risk Research. After a brief period working in marketing, she returned to applied research at ETH Zurich. She is currently also employed as the senior social scientist at the Swiss Centre for Applied Human Toxicology at the University of Basel. Over the years, she has initiated several projects focused on chemical and technological risks, stakeholder engagement, and risk communication. She is a member of the Scientific Committee of the European Food Safety Authority and the president-elect of the Society for Risk Analysis Europe, both scientific organisations that reflect her passion for interdisciplinary, applied research and collaboration with non-academic institutions and organisations.

Find her publications here.

Team

Larissa Luchsinger

Senior Projectmanager

Larissa holds a Master’s degree in Sociology from the University of Zurich. She has many years of in-depth experience in project management and scientific work. She previously worked at the Bern University of Applied Sciences for several years. Since February 2020, she has been part of the Consumer Behaviour Group at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich).

Dr. Christina Hartmann

Senior Projectmanager

Christina holds a degree in Nutritional Science from Justus-Liebig University in Giessen, Germany, and earned her doctoral degree from ETH Zurich. She worked for many years as a researcher and lecturer in the Consumer Behavior group at ETH Zurich. Her research focuses on the intersection between consumer behaviour science and nutrition psychology, with particular emphasis on consumers’ perception and acceptance of novel food sources, the development of food preferences, and food choices. She has authored more than 60 scientific publications on topics such as plant-based meat alternatives, insect-based foods, cultured meat, as well as disgust sensitivity and food neophobia. In 2021, Christina Hartmann was awarded with the Food Quality and Preference Award – Contributions by a researcher of the future.

Find her publications here.

External Cooperation Partners

Dr. Tuule Grolig

External Cooperation Partner

Tuule is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Tartu and a postdoctoral researcher in the Cognitive and Behavioral Decision Research-Group (CBDR) at the University of Zurich. She specialises in strategic and cognitive interviewing techniques, deception detection, and interviewees’ strategies during interviews. With a keen interest in the complex dynamics of human behaviour, her work focuses on understanding the nuanced factors that influence information gathering and decision-making processes.

Find her publications here.

Scientific Advisor

Prof. Dr. Michael Siegrist

Scientific Advisor

Michael has been Professor of Consumer Behavior at ETH Zurich since 2007. With an early interest in topics related to risk and uncertainty, he brings over 35 years of experience in applied research on security and safety issues. Regularly listed among the Highly Cited Researchers, he has published more than 500 scientific articles.

Find his publications here.