We are a globally recognised open and exploratory design-led research lab at Lancaster University, one of the top ten universities in the UK. Founded in 2006, we apply our exploratory research to address the complex challenges identified by industry, public and private sectors, national and international governments.
Our sixty-strong team of diverse design researchers includes architects, engineers, technologists, product designers and more.
Our research explores people, physical spaces, digital worlds, artificial intelligence, health and human behaviours from every angle.
Design research at Imagination takes an open ended, anti-disciplinary approach. Because innovation often occurs at the boundaries of disciplines and knowledge our design focus and interdisciplinary approach results in radical innovation, transforming products, places, services and policy for the common good.
ImaginationLancaster is housed within the Lancaster Institute of Contemporary Arts (LICA) – the award winning purpose-built creative arts facility with our bespoke facilitation space Imagination Lab. We’d love to tell you more, please contact us.
The project ‘Beyond Imagination’ explores and demonstrates how cutting-edge design research can create a healthier, more prosperous and sustainable world. Funded by Research England and Lancaster University, this £13.2 million 3-year project put design research at Lancaster firmly on the global map, transforming the University’s ImaginationLancaster design team with the 33 new roles – a significant increase. It addresses current global challenges such as Ageing Society, Artificial Intelligence and Data, Clean Growth, Health and Wellbeing – and also identifies and tackles future emerging complex, global challenges.
Our publication ‘Going Beyond Imagination‘ celebrates the achievements of the ‘Beyond Imagination’ project and is a snapshot of who we are now, and what we are aiming for going forward into 2023 and beyond.
You can download the pdf here.
The films below give an introduction and overview of each of our research clusters and themes. They capture the spirit of Imagination and were created in partnership with Wash Studio.
Transcripts for all the films can be downloaded as PDF documents.
If you would like to watch all the films together as one film then please watch the ImaginationLancaster Film Premiere.