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Sustainable Transitions through Democratic Design

Project description

Innovative training in democratic design for climate transitions

The numerous efforts by countries and organisations to implement green solutions and adopt policies and technologies aimed at mitigating the risks of climate change create a pressing demand for transdisciplinary researchers who can effectively oversee and enhance these initiatives. However, the rapid shift in demand and the absence of prior programmes offering the necessary training have resulted in this demand going unmet. The MSCA-funded CoDesign4Transitions project has set its sights on furnishing 10 early-stage transdisciplinary researchers with training and experience in areas such as design for sustainability, democratic innovation and climate transitions. This initiative will equip them to meet this demand and promote sustainable transitions through democratic design.

Objective

CoDesign4Transitions will develop 10 transdisciplinary Early-Stage Researchers (ESRs) at the intersection of co-design, design for sustainability, service and systems design, democratic innovation and climate transitions equipped to develop new approaches and validated prototypes for action. This is urgent to enable governments, businesses and civil society to deliver multi-level solutions required to achieve net zero targets committed to in the Paris Agreement. Design is central to achieving this because of its capacities for enabling experimentation through prototyping to reduce the risk of failure; synthesising ideas and evidence into material and visual forms for engaging stakeholders in co-creation; and facilitating innovative change. In contested sustainability transitions, design provides a connective tissue essential to engaging publics in democratic innovation towards net zero.
CoDesign4Transition offers ESRs the possibility to develop crucial new approaches to democratic design for climate transitions in a cross-disciplinary, intersectoral environment. This will provide a unique training experience for each ESR, who will benefit from access to expert supervisors and mentors from academic and non-academic sectors. The network comprises 6 leading higher education beneficiaries and 13 Associate Partners from 9 countries, who will provide advanced training including transferable skills. 10 non-academic organisations will host secondments where ESRs will develop and test design approaches to transitions and critically assess how to build design capabilities. The 4-year research and training programme comprises research work-packages investigating prototyping, materialisation and visualisation, and facilitating practice-systems change in democratic climate transitions; one on training and researcher development. Two horizontal work-packages devoted to communication, dissemination and exploitation and project management underpin the network.

Coordinator

POLITECNICO DI MILANO
Net EU contribution
€ 518 875,20
Address
PIAZZA LEONARDO DA VINCI 32
20133 Milano
Italy

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Region
Nord-Ovest Lombardia Milano
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Links
Total cost
No data

Participants (5)

Partners (17)