Output details

Advancing by Design

This report was the first comprehensive in-depth analysis conducted anywhere of a regional provision by universities of design support for the private and public sectors. It was commissioned by the West Midlands Higher Education Association and funded by the Higher Education Funding Council (£150,000). Clive Richards (the PI) chaired the steering group, directed the research and was editor and designer of the report. Ecotec Consulting was commissioned to carry out the bulk of the data gathering and interviews.

Significant conclusions drawn included that there were territorial tensions between university-led design support and private sector-led provision. The scope for universities to deliver design support for businesses was recognized but a recommendation was that university and private sector roles needed to be more carefully determined and articulated. Whilst innovative work was identified the university offer in design was crowded and confusing to the private sector. Also knowledge transfer could have been much more effective – not only university to business and business to university, but also how it informed the curriculum.

One outcome was the Designs into Business Directory (2009) of regional university provision in design services published by Contact Knowledge Exchange, West Midlands (ISBN 978-1-904839-31-6). Following the report the conference ‘Design and the creative industries: working together with universities’ was staged by Brighton University in March 2010 with keynote addresses by Sir George Cox and Professor Clive Richards (the researcher).

The recommendations of the Advancing by Design report were also a key stimulus for setting up the ‘IDEA Birmingham’ network, launched in 2011, and its ‘Design Expo’, established to promote innovation in the region and co-ordinate and promote design support for businesses.

This scheme provides a model for such university/business collaborations in other regions in the UK and beyond.