RSA Design Directions and NESTA challenge students to design for the 21st century

03/08/2007

"The next generation of designers could hold the key to some of our more intractable social problems."

Four of the scheme's 16 projects have been developed in collaboration with NESTA's Innovation Challenges programme, with expert input from the Mental Health Foundation, Long Term Conditions Alliance, NHS Institute of Innovation and Improvement, Involve and thinkpublic.

Like the RSA, NESTA aims to stimulate innovation in response to major social issues and these four projects are designed to encourage students to come up with radical and experimental new ways in which to either tackle issues relating to health or involve communities in problem-solving.

Under the heading of 'Design for Living', the four projects are:

• Think again - a project examining how design-led solutions can contribute to mental health, recovery and wellbeing developed in conjunction with the Mental Health Foundation.
• Including you - a second health-focused project looking at designing for people living with long term health conditions developed in conjunction with the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement and Long Term Conditions Alliance.
• Engage! - a communities-focused project looking at catalysing social change through design-led citizen participation. This project was developed with Involve and thinkpublic.
• Global issue|Local solution - a second communities-based project that seeks design-led solutions to help communities tackle climate change, developed with the in-house expertise of NESTA Innovation Challenges and RSA CarbonLimited.

A range of resource material supports each of these four projects, including filmed interviews with experts and designers discussing the projects, which will be available via the RSA Design Directions website.

Speaking about this year's scheme, Matthew Taylor, RSA chief executive said:

"The 2007/08 Design Directions programme is radical, experimental and challenging. The projects break down barriers between design disciplines, encourage team-working and above all place the user at the centre of the design process. The carefully crafted projects generated from our partnership with NESTA, not only reflect the RSA's new citizen-centric agenda but also marks the future direction for this scheme".

Talking about their involvement, Helen Gresty, executive director of NESTA's Innovation Programmes, said:

"The next generation of designers could hold the key to some of our more intractable social problems. We're interested in challenging these individuals to apply their skills and creativity to these issues to come up with new and innovative solutions and inspire others to do the same".

The full list of projects, including those under the Design for Living heading, can be found at www.rsadesigndirections.org. Further information, including resource materials, details of awards worth £100,000 in total, entry forms, judging panels and sponsor information can also be found here.

For more information, please contact the RSA Press Office at media@rsa.org.uk or call 07971 851145.

RSA
Since its inception, the RSA has built up a well-deserved reputation for generating new and imaginative ideas to promote social progress. Our aim is to continue to be a force for change by delivering far-reaching and realistic practical solutions that will produce a more prosperous, more just and more environmentally sustainable world. The RSA's aims are delivered through a portfolio of projects and a lecture programme consisting of well over one hundred events a year. We are a progressive, wholly independent, multi-disciplinary body supported by 26,000 Fellows worldwide.

Our research programme is developed around a small number of major projects that combine high quality research and debate, with networking, campaigning, innovation and experimentation.

The RSA programme focuses on the major barriers to the fullest development of human potential such as climate change, global poverty, inadequate and outdated education, citizen disengagement in civic life, public misunderstanding of risk and science, and the cultural and social barriers to enterprise and creativity.

In establishing and managing projects, we set ourselves the tough objective that at the end of a project we can confidently say that our work has significantly advanced the public debate. Visit www.theRSA.org for further details.

NESTA
NESTA is the National Endowment for Science, Technology & the Arts. With endowed funds of over £300 million, our mission is to transform the UK's capacity for innovation. We do this in three main ways: by working to build a more pervasive culture of innovation in this country; by providing innovators with access to early stage capital; and by driving forward research into innovation, with a view to influencing policy.

NESTA Innovation Challenges is a programme designed to test the best ways of stimulating innovation in response to major social issues. For further information, visit www.nesta.org.uk/programmes/challenges/index.aspx.