New connections among knowledge, practice, and place.
Not the removal of difference, but the formation of questions and methods that no single field could produce alone.
2026 annual theme
Research Areas
A framework for research that connects design with science, technology, culture, education, society, and ecological transition.
Theme rationale
Beyond boundaries does not mean without depth.
Many contemporary questions emerge between fields. The annual theme asks how design can create conditions in which different forms of knowledge work together without losing their specificity.
Projects should be interdisciplinary because the research question requires it, not because breadth is valuable on its own. The Program looks for a clear question, an accountable method, and a contribution that can be examined and carried forward.
Three connected dimensions
A shared intellectual frame
New capacities for imagination, judgment, and action.
Including the relationships among people, communities, technologies, and changing forms of agency.
Long-term value across ecological, cultural, social, and institutional systems.
Asking what should be created, for whom, under what conditions, and with what consequences.
Research Areas
Six open areas of inquiry
These areas are connected rather than exclusive. Applicants may work across more than one where the research question requires it.
01
Generative Design, Design Intelligence, and Human-AI Co-Creation
This area examines artificial intelligence as more than a production tool. It welcomes research into how designers and intelligent systems frame problems, generate alternatives, make judgments, and share agency. Projects may develop new methods, prototypes, or critical accounts of computational creativity while remaining attentive to authorship, data, cultural context, and responsible use.
Questions may include
- Generative systems and computational creativity
- Human-AI collaboration and shared agency
- Design reasoning and intelligent tools
- Multimodal creative systems
- Authorship, ethics, and responsible AI
Possible forms: Methods, prototypes, critical studies, tools, or publicly accessible demonstrations.
02
Emerging Interfaces, Digital Experience, and Creative Technology
This area supports inquiry into the changing relationships among people, media, objects, and environments. It includes experimental interfaces, spatial and embodied computing, tangible media, immersive systems, and critical studies of digital experience. Strong proposals connect technical exploration to a clear human, cultural, or public question.
Questions may include
- Human-computer interaction
- Embodied and tangible media
- Spatial computing and immersive environments
- Creative coding and experimental interfaces
- Digital culture and experience design
Possible forms: Interactive prototypes, installations, films, experience studies, or design frameworks.
03
Future Design Studies, Education, and Knowledge Innovation
This area welcomes historical, theoretical, critical, and practice-based work that expands the intellectual foundations of design. Research may examine emerging methods, future literacy, design ethics, experimental education, institutional change, or new forms of publication and knowledge-making. Projects should contribute a clear argument or method that others can examine and build upon.
Questions may include
- Design theory, history, and criticism
- Research-through-design methods
- Design ethics and future literacy
- Experimental design education
- Knowledge systems and scholarly communication
Possible forms: Publications, curricula, archives, research methods, educational models, or critical media.
04
Sustainable Production, Material Innovation, and Ecological Transitions
This area considers how materials, manufacturing, infrastructure, and everyday practices might change in response to ecological limits. It welcomes work on circular and regenerative systems, low-impact materials, bio-design, repair, craft knowledge, and climate-responsive production. Proposals should make the environmental and social consequences of their choices visible.
Questions may include
- Circular and regenerative production
- Material innovation and bio-design
- Low-impact manufacturing and repair
- Craft knowledge and cultural continuity
- Climate-responsive systems and infrastructure
Possible forms: Material studies, prototypes, production frameworks, field research, or transition scenarios.
05
Public Design, Social Innovation, and Inclusive Futures
This area supports research developed with communities, public institutions, and civic contexts. It includes service and policy design, accessibility, public health, participatory methods, institutional transformation, and design for social infrastructure. Projects should articulate who participates, whose knowledge matters, and how the work may create durable public value.
Questions may include
- Public services and social infrastructure
- Participatory and community-led design
- Accessibility and inclusive practice
- Health, well-being, and care systems
- Institutional change and civic innovation
Possible forms: Service prototypes, policy tools, participatory methods, public programs, or community resources.
06
Cross-Cultural Design and Cultural Creativity
This area welcomes research grounded in cultural heritage, traditional knowledge, local experience, creative industries, and cross-regional exchange. It asks how design can support translation and renewal while respecting historical context, community authorship, and cultural plurality. Projects may combine archival, field-based, technological, and creative approaches.
Questions may include
- Cultural heritage and traditional knowledge
- Local experience and cultural technologies
- Translation and cross-regional collaboration
- Graphic, craft, fashion, and media cultures
- Creative industries and cultural continuity
Possible forms: Archives, exhibitions, films, publications, cultural tools, or collaborative creative works.
Cross-cutting method
Research Translation and Public Knowledge
The Program encourages researchers to consider how knowledge will travel. Appropriate forms may include publications, prototypes, exhibitions, archives, films, educational models, research tools, data or material resources, and public projects.
Translation is not a requirement to simplify the work. It is a commitment to make the question, method, and contribution available to relevant scholarly, professional, cultural, or public communities.
Open research scope
What a strong proposal should demonstrate
A consequential question
Clear enough to investigate and important enough to justify sustained work.
Design at the centre
A reason design is necessary to the inquiry, method, or form of knowledge produced.
Interdisciplinary necessity
Disciplines and collaborators brought together because the question demands it.
A credible path
A feasible plan, appropriate research environment, and meaningful form of contribution.