New design research project at SDU will enable sustainable transitions

By Caroline Zoffmann Jessen, czj@sdu.dk, 1/19/2024

Associate professor Eva Knutz and Professor Thomas Markussen from The Social Design Unit at University of Southern Denmark,  have been awarded a grant by the European Commission - European Research Executive Agency - for the prestigious Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action Doctoral Networks of the European Union's Horizon Europe framework programme together with  Aalborg Universitet, SWPS University, Vrije Universiteit, RMIT Europe and associated partners University of the Arts London and Moholy-Nagy Muveszeti Egyetem,

This prestigious network is also complemented by 13 associated partners that will strengthen the training, employability and professional development of doctoral candidates.

The CoDesign4Transitions network is dedicated to nurturing the talents of 13 transdisciplinary Doctoral Researchers between January 2024-December 2027. The doctoral researchers will carry out new research and develop skills at the intersection of co-design, sustainability, service and systems design, democratic innovation, and climate transitions. In the context of contentious sustainability transitions, the project will provide these researchers with a unique opportunity to pioneer democratic design methodologies for climate transitions in an interdisciplinary, intersectoral environment.

The 13 non-academic partners from business, civil society, policy and local government will offer researchers secondments, training and support to develop new methodological approaches and develop and test their research in context, leading to positive local impacts across Europe.