Research

Lara Salinas and Alison Prendiville presented papers in ServDes Conference in Milan, and half the current students attended the conference. Proceedings available here: http://www.servdes.org/conference-2018-milano-2/

Salinas, Lara; Thorpe, Adam; Prendivile, Alison; Rhodes, Sarah (2018) Civic engagement as participation in designing for services. in: ServDes Service Design and Innovation Conference 2018: Proof of Concept. 18-20 June 2018, Milan, Italy.

In spite of the increased interest on collaborative and participatory design approaches to design in public sector, less attention has been paid to the contribution of design into civic engagement in local decision-making. This paper takes an organisational perspective to explore the role of civic engagement activities in local decision-making cycles, drawing on literature and insights from a workshop with local authorities’ representatives and art and design academics. Zooming out from specific civic engagement activities, the paper outlines local decision-making as a design process, proposes four scenarios, and provides insights into better understanding the decision-making cycles that lead to service transformation in local authorities. The authors argue that while design can facilitate civic engagement practices, an increased understanding of local decision-making cycles can enhance the adoption of participatory approaches in designing for public services in local authorities.

Prendiville, Alison (2018) The satellite applications catapult: Design’s contribution to science and technology innovation services. in: ServDes Service Design and Innovation Conference 2018: Proof of Concept. 18-20 June 2018, Milan, Italy.

This positioning paper presents a six-month scoping study on the role of design in one of the UK Governments’ science and technology innovation centres, the Satellite Applications Catapult. Established in 2013 by Innovate UK, the remit of the Satellite Applications is to support economic growth through the exploitation of space with the application of satellite technologies. As one of the earliest adopters of design, the Satellite Applications, with the Transport Systems Catapult, was selected by the UK government’s innovation network, the Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN), to be the sites for this research. For the purpose of this paper the Satellite Applications Catapult is presented as a case study as a first step to explain how different design practices shape the organisation’s innovation capability with the paper conceptualising how these activities work at different levels of the organisation. To reflect on design more generally across the Catapults this paper also frames these innovation services as Knowledge Intensive Business Services (KIBS), so that design’s capability within these contexts can be better understood as knowledge sharing and transformational practies within the organization and externally with clients.

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Other conferences:

Salinas, Lara (2018) What is the value of knowledge exchange? In: Cumulus 2018, 11-14 April 2018, Paris.

Knowledge exchange is a collective and collaborative practice that together with research and education has become the third mission of higher education institutions. In the higher education context, knowledge exchange is an umbrella term used as a shorthand for x-disciplinary collaboration between academia and business, public and third sector organisations, that delivers innovation. The landscape of knowledge exchange in higher education is complex and moves along the spectrum of research, knowledge transfer and education resulting in a myriad of knowledge exchange practices, involving very diverse mechanisms, objectives, actors and external collaborators, and therefore generating a wide array of value and impacts.

This paper reports on research in-progress commissioned to better understand the distinctive value of knowledge exchange activities in the arts and humanities, and in particular to explore how might the value that arts and design knowledge exchange activities deliver to external organisations be more effectively identified, captured and communicated. The research follows an inclusive and participatory approach that includes literature review and workshops with academics and officers experienced in knowledge exchange.