This £1.2m project – Design Research Works – is investigating how Design Research can help optimise our changing relationships with emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and the Internet of Things.

This work is important because digital technologies are changing the world around us and we need new ways to make sense of these realities—this is something Design Research is particularly good at. Based on a series of longitudinal case studies with diverse project partners (including Microsoft, the RSA, Oxford University, Sheffield Hallam University and the University of Edinburgh), the ultimate goal of the work is to bring about a paradigm shift in how we understand our changing relationship with technology.

The fellowship will bring art and science closer together, it will advocate for Design-led approaches as the preeminent means for unpacking complex socio-technical situations, and it will help us minimise the risks, but maximise the benefits, of adopting emerging technologies.