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UAL co-leads new international Sustainable Transitions through Democratic Design doctoral network

A group of eleven people smiling and posing in front of a shop window with a modern display. The individuals are dressed warmly in winter coats, scarves, and hats, standing on a sidewalk. The shop features creative decorations and text on the window, adding a festive or artistic vibe to the scene.
  • Written byPress Office
  • Published date 04 December 2024
A group of eleven people smiling and posing in front of a shop window with a modern display. The individuals are dressed warmly in winter coats, scarves, and hats, standing on a sidewalk. The shop features creative decorations and text on the window, adding a festive or artistic vibe to the scene.
Doctoral students in the Sustainable Transitions through Democratic Design in London in November 2024

In late November, the UAL Doctoral School was buzzing for a week as over 40 people including doctoral students, academics and partners gathered for the first training week of the new international Sustainable Transitions through Democratic Design Doctoral Network initiated and co-led by UAL.

This four-year doctoral network will develop new research and solutions at the intersection of design, climate transitions, and policy, co-led by Prof Lucy Kimbell (CSM) and Prof Marzia Mortati (Politecnico di Milano). Funded by the prestigious and competitive Doctoral Networks scheme within the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme of the European Commission, the network brings together 13 doctoral candidates employed at eight universities in seven countries with 15 partners from business, government and policy, with a total of €3.5m funding.

Of these 13 new doctoral candidates, two are employed at UAL - Tessa Laven and Shilpi Rath, who will be working closely over the next three years with their cross-UAL supervisor teams of Prof Ramia Maze (LCC) and Dr Nikki Wallace (CCW), and Dr Lara Salinas (LCC) and Prof Adam Thorpe (CSM). During their doctoral research, Tessa will have secondments at Stockholm Environment Institute, Sweden and EY Seren in London. Shilpi will have secondments at cross-European innovation support organisation Climate KIC in Denmark and London Borough of Camden.

A group of people engaged in a collaborative workshop or presentation in a modern meeting room. The room features large posters with colorful sticky notes and a projector displaying a slide titled
Doctoral students and supervisors in transition design workshop at UAL delivered by Carnegie Melon University

The week consisted of a busy programme of keynotes, panel events, workshops, Q&As, sense-making, open-mic, and social sessions with contributions from staff across UAL including speakers Dr Matt Malpass (CSM), Dr Adriana Cobo Corey (CSM), Dr Victoria Odeniyi (Decolonising Arts Institute), Dr Anna Troisi (Creative Computing Institute) and supervisors in the network along with colleagues from the Transition Design Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, recent CSM PhD graduate Dr Daniella Jenkins from University of Bristol, specialist transition design co-operative Holon from Barcelona as well as other collaborators. Outputs from the network will be shared in an online knowledge base, two international conferences, policy briefings and other media between now and the end of 2028.

Professor Lucy Kimbell at Central Saint Martins, who co-leads the network and programmed the London training week said:

"It was exciting for the network to come together in person to start exploring what a new research field will be to use design to respond to the collective challenge of climate transitions in a context of contestation and need for citizen-centred innovation.”