Design and innovation
The deadline for 2012 Doctoral College Studentships has now passed.
The Brighton Doctoral College is pleased to welcome applications from self-funded or externally sponsored students for programmes of research in this or a closely related area, beginning from September 2012. Applications are welcome from students wishing to study full time or part time, and applications are welcome from students in employment who have the support of their employers.
- Based in the Faculty of Arts
- Supervisors: Professor Anne Boddington; Dr Jonathan Sapsed; Dr Andrew Grantham; Professor Jonathan Woodham.
Application deadline
The university cannot guarantee that students can start at their requested date unless deadlines are met.
- UK/EU students: The deadline for the university to receive applications for an entry date of October is the 1 August, for January entry it is the 1 November and for May it is the 1 March.
- International students: The deadline for the university to receive applications for an entry date of October is the 1 June, for January entry it is the 1 September and for May it is the 1 January.
Design has historically suffered from its multi-disciplinarity.
Its failure to find a natural home in universities and businesses alike has resulted in the discipline being located in engineering departments dominated by the language of mathematics. The inherent creativity of designers has been marginalised. Yet times are changing.
Design, at least in the UK, is now high on the political agenda of governments which view design as a key lever of economic growth and development. Firms, moreover, view the design of products as more than mere packaging, and service providers realise that empathy through design is critical for success in the eyes of consumers in a time of instant communication – good and bad experiences relating to products and services are communicated globally, instantly.
Recent work between the internationally-recognised Faculty of Arts in partnership with the Faculty of Business (the Centre for Research in Innovation Management) has explored the intersection of design and innovation through a number of university and AHRC-funded research initiatives. These ongoing studies, involving considerable collaboration with digital and creative businesses in the South East England region, have resulted in a number of publications and reports as well as providing thought leadership, global network development and new academic programmes at post- and undergraduate levels.
Many additional fields of investigation are now open to empirical investigation. Applications are invited for the award of a PhD scholarship to join a dynamic team working in this growing and important field of research and practice. In particular, the research team would be interested to receive research proposals dealing with the role of innovation in the following areas:
- Design theory
- Design tools – technology, efficacy and the effects on creativity
- Policy – design as an enabler of economic and business development
- Design in firms – process, embeddedness, innovation, location and indicators
- Design education and education by design
- Design history
- Design thinking; designerly thinking; design epistemology
- Design management
- Design and technology
This work builds on the AHRC-funded Brighton FUSE, the Pioneering Research Challenge and the work of CENTRIM in innovation management.
Find out more about research at the University of Brighton.
