Design Museum Research

Research is a core activity at the Design Museum. In spring 2024, the museum was granted Independent Research Organisation (IRO) status in recognition of its ability to lead and support groundbreaking research. IRO status is awarded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) on behalf of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).

As a country we face complex challenges, from redefining our relations with others and the environment to the proliferation of new technologies. Our research involves not only the historical contextualisation and critical analysis of contemporary design, but importantly engages speculative methods. We interrogate how we create, produce, use and discard the things around us; how this might be done differently; and what the role of design museums is in the context of a climate crisis.

We undertake or support research:

Within the museum

Our Curatorial team presents critical perspectives on contemporary design through exhibitions, public programmes and publications. As exhibition makers, their practice requires not just archival, object-centred or text-based research but the study of living and rapidly evolving design practices. They communicate their findings through highly innovative and adaptable forms of display that accommodate not just objects but contexts, systems, software and other intangible forms of design. Increasingly, we are investing more research into reducing the environmental impact of our exhibition making through design, material choices and ground-breaking impact assessment tools. Testing these models is itself a form of research.

● Our Collections team records and catalogues major shifts in design through their acquisitions, drawing on design history, contemporary design studies and collections care.

Over 3000 objects tell the history of mass production, from the manufacturing innovations of the nineteenth century up to the digital and maker revolutions of the last two decades. They are embarking on a major research project to diversify the collections - both racially and in terms of gender – identifying, acquiring and contextualising designers, makers and activists that broaden our understanding of design and the received canon.

● Our Learning team delivers lectures, workshops, performances and screenings for over 40,000 learners each year. They explore the relationship between critical design thinking and critical pedagogy to develop new resources (both physical and digital) and frameworks for design learning and teaching practice; actively positioning design in relation to social justice and sustainable futures. Our ‘New Thinking, New Voices’ initiative begun in 2018 offers afterhours learning to young adults from underrepresented backgrounds, exploring and nurturing a more diverse design canon. Our ‘Design Ventura’ programme has trained teachers and supported curricula across 2,400 UK schools since 2010, incorporating sustainable design strategies as a core component.

● Our Future Observatory team is a research unit launched within the Design Museum in 2021, advancing mission-oriented innovation (Mazzucato 2017) and design-led research. Future Observatory curates exhibitions, programmes events and funds and publishes new research, all with the aim of championing new design thinking on environmental issues. It hosts four internal Design Researchers in Residence, ten external Research Fellows and four Innovation Awardees from across the UK. It produces an annual display on climate-related design research, and will launch a gallery space within the museum dedicated to displaying ‘live design research’, a journal and a podcast in 2023. It is co-funded with the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), part of UKRI.

With partner institutions

● Future Observatory is also the engagement hub for a £21-million nationwide design research programme Future Observatory: Design the Green Transition delivered in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council. Over the next three years, Future Observatory will co-ordinate over 140 research projects, connecting researchers and synthesising findings across over 100 higher education design institutions and 85 industry and local authority partners across the UK.

● The museum is a core partner for the Design Age Institute, the UK’s national strategic unit for design and the healthy ageing economy. We exhibit and contextualise age-responsive design prototypes for a public audience, and organise events that bring together designers, businesses, researchers and communities to help address the challenges and opportunities of an ageing society.

● The museum works in partnership with Kingston School of Art to host and deliver a collaborative master’s degree Curating Contemporary Design. Since its foundation 22 years ago, it has grown into one of the world's foremost programmes for design curators. Museum staff members share their research and methodologies with students; and the Design Museum Library and Archive serve as a central resource for this programme.

● The museum has partnered with Kingston School of Art to submit a proposal for a Collaborative Doctoral Award (CDA), supporting research that diversifies understandings around the museum’s collections.

● Since 2022, the museum supports over 700 undergraduate students at University of the Arts London on the Collective Practices Climate Challenge project, connecting them to environmental researchers, biodiversity and biodesign initiatives and sustainable design practice models.

With local communities

● Our Public Programming team in the Learning Department work with community initiatives across Kensington. They use participatory design methods to develop equitable relationships and spaces of enquiry and knowledge-sharing within the borough. Currently, they are working with local community members, researchers, designers, innovators and social thinkers to reformulate the museum’s Dame Sylvia Crowe Garden into a communal green space and an accessible learning and research site.

Research Ethics Board
Read about the museum's Research Ethics Board and its members here.

Thank you to the following supporters of the Design Museum and its learning programme.