European Design Innovation Initiative Project Approval

We were very pleased to hear today that we have been successful in our project proposal made under the 1st action of the European Design Innovation Initiative (EDII) by the European Commission. "Thank you" to all of our partners in helping to put this exciting project together.

The project will continue some of the activities of the previous SEE Project but also broaden its scope with ten other partners across Europe to build a new pan-European SEE Platform that will engage with regional and national organisations currently active in innovation support and policy and help to build their understanding and use of design for user-centred innovation.

The partners for the new SEE Platform are:

Design Wales / Cardiff Metropolitan University (UK)
Design Flanders (BE)
Regional Development Agency of South Bohemia-RERA (CZ)
Danish Design Centre (DK)
Estonian Design Centre (EE)
Aalto University, School of Art & Design / Designium (FI)
Jyväskylä University of Applied Sciences (FI)
Business and Cultural Development Centre (KEPA) (GR)
Border, Midlands and West Assembly (IE)
Castle Cieszyn (PL)
Design Council (UK)


There is still some paperwork to do before the project can be officially launched - when this is done we will let you know.

UK Design Alliance Meeting in Cardiff

Gavin Cawood (Design Wales), Kathryn Woolf (Cornwall Design Forum) and Roger Procter (South West Design Forum)

Jocelyn Bailey Policy Connect sharing her tips for connecting policy makers with design.

Colin McKeown of the Northern Ireland Design Alliance and Alison Merrifield of the Sector Skills Alliance

On the 26th January Design Wales hosted a meeting of the UK Design Alliance (UKDA) for the second time in Cardiff. The UKDA is a partnership of national and regional stakeholders who come together to strengthen the UK design sector. Such as through our work via the Design Wales Forum many of the active  members are regional design networks who are engaging with the UKDA to both understand how they can influence the national design agenda and to provide a voice for the design sector in their region.

The meeting discussed strategies for keeping design on the local political agenda. Jocelyn Bailey of Policy Connect was invited to share some successful strategies she had witnessed, of ways of connecting policy makers with design. Gavin Cawood of Design Wales and Colin McKeown of the Northern Ireland Design Alliance shared their experiences of trying to keep design on their local political agenda. Gavin discussed outcomes of the Design Wales manifesto and petition and a debate in the Sennedd where design was added to the innovation agenda. Colin talked through the Northern Ireland Design Alliance's future ambitions and how Design Wales had supported them in lobbying their government about design.


In further understanding the needs of the design sector Anna Whicher (Design Wales) presented an analysis of design sector skills reports developed by The Design Council and Creative and Cultural Skills while Victoria Jones (Design Wales) presented the results of a survey of UKDA members. A discussion followed where Design Wales agreed to send out an updated version of the survey, asking UKDA members to highlight content and resources that they are willing to share, sell or that they need in order to highlight the economic benefits of design to business.

Design Wales are to host the UKDA for a twelve month period, after which it is hoped another regional forum or organisation will facilitate the activities of the partnership. Still organised by Design Wales, the next meeting is to take place in Birmingham on the 23rd May.

Design Management Europe Award - Board meeting in Brussels

The Kings House, Grand Place, Brussels.

Representing the National Centre for Product Design & Development Research (PDR), where Design Wales is based, last week we attended the latest Board meeting for the Design Management Europe Award (DME). Members of the Board from PDR, The European Design Centre, Dutch Design Week and The Red Dot Award gathered in Brussels to discuss proposals for the Design Management Award 2012.
To be formally launched later in the Spring, the DME Award will this year be hosted in Portugal with the judging, presentations and final award ceremony being shared between two cities; Viana de Castelo and Guimaraes.
PDR are one of the founding consortia members behind the DME Award and provide the analysis of the annual entries that come organisations across Europe that range from local micro businesses to multi-national corporations in the private sector as well as those in the public sector.

Service Design Workshop for Design Silesia

 

For most of this week we have a group from Silesia (Poland) here in Cardiff attending a workshop on how to run design-led innovation projects in public services.
The group includes Polish designers and representatives from Design Silesia, who, as part of the Silesian Marshall's Office, are supporting the project. In delivering the programme of training for the Polish designers Design Wales invited Age Cymru into the workshops to provide a real project case study that the delegation will work on to develop their understanding and use of service design tools. At the end of the week the group will return to Silesia to work with three target public services but continue to have support from the Design Wales service design programme as their live projects develop.
With a similar industrial heritage and economic objectives for the future the Welsh Government and the Region of Silesia have a long-standing Memorandum of Understanding to work together and on their first day the group were formally welcomed to Wales by the office of the First Minister from the Welsh Government.


Design Silesia identified this opportunity to work together after hearing about the service design programme that was launched by Design Wales in July 2010. With support from the Welsh Government the service design programme provides both an advisory service to manufactures as well as building capacity for service design in the Welsh design sector.

Looking for a design manager

The PDR Building in Cardiff

Design Wales are looking for a new member of staff with experience of design management to help us advise businesses in Wales (particularly SMEs) how they might best manage design.

Based at our offices in the National Centre for Product Design & Development Research (PDR) at Cardiff Metropolitan University this is going to be a fixed-term post that runs until 31st July 2015.

Full details of the post (title: Design Advisor-Design Management) and application forms will be available from next Tuesday 17th January via www.cardiffmet.ac.uk/jobs

If you have any questions about the post then please e-mail gcawood@designwales.org

SEE Design Policy Monitor

Design Wales has been leading the SEE project since 2008. SEE has been sharing international best practice to integrate design into innovation policies and programmes. A key initiative has been to examine innovation and design policies and programmes developments between 2009 and 2011. The results are in and we present the SEE Design Policy Monitor, which reveals the scope and depth of policy provisions for design an innovation in the partner regions/countries.

Design policy has been a hot topic recently with the results of the European Commission’s call for projects as part of the European Design Innovation Initiative expected in January 2012, BIS publishing the UK’s Innovation and Research Strategy including design for innovation and the Design Council event ‘Should government have a design strategy?’.

As part of the Design Policy Monitor, we examined the innovation policies for the EU’s 27 Member States, which revealed that 17 out 27 have design included (in some form) in a national level strategy. This demonstrates that in the context of economic renewal, design is being recognised as a driver of innovation. On 8 December, the UK Department for Business Innovation and Skills published their Innovation and Research Strategy for Growth with an entire section devoted to design for innovation. Here are some key quotes:

‘Design can be transformative for companies, through leading or supporting product and process innovation, for managing the innovation process itself, for the commercialisation of science, and the delivery of public services.’ P. 35

‘Design thinking can play an important role in strengthening the public sector’s capacity to be an intelligent customer as it involves bringing together different perspectives, including industry and users of a service or product, to understand needs. The use of design can deliver cost savings and improved efficiency in the delivery of public services and help to generate solutions to societal challenges.’ P. 85

The role of design in the new strategy was presented by a representative of BIS at the Design Council policy event on 1 December. Gavin Cawood also presented an overview of the state of play for design policy across Europe. The videos are available on the Design Council website.

Design Wales and SEE will continue to monitor policies for innovation and design over the next few years to examine new trends in the future at European, national and regional levels.

Design Wales Launches Service Design Website

The Service Design Programme is an initiative developed by Design Wales to help the manufacturing and creative industries apply the latest service innovation techniques to their businesses.

There is a dedicated website for this programme with case studies, project news, service design resources. You can reach this website here: www.testyourservice.co.uk

Service Test App

The site also includes an on-line tool that companies can use to check the quality and cost of their service. It is often the starting point for companies that want to improve their service but simply don't know where to start. Try it for yourself here: www.testyourservice.co.uk/app

Case studies

One company that we have seen service design make a big impact in Aggrelek, an advanced manufacturer from Swansea, you can read all about how they have benefited from the programme here: www.testyourservice.co.uk/blog/news/aggrelek-case-study