Design Innovation project awarded EPG funding

Public policymaking often results in inadequate services to citizens due to a lack of diverse participation and voice, dominant top-down views, and poor consensus. The Design for Policy (DfP) Toolkit supports social innovators in influencing current policymaking practice to deliver improved services to citizens (e.g., fair energy, digital health) aiming for wellbeing in society. The proposed Creative Commons web-based Toolkit will include structured workshop formats, manuals, methods, and knowledge resources built on citizen-centred design practices. With facilitation, these enable social innovators to deliver participatory, citizen-centred, awareness-raising events, training, and co-creation sessions that generate impact through influencing policies that enable improved services.

The project team, led by Professor Mikko Koria working with Dr Federico Vaz and Dr Sharon Prendeville, has been awarded almost £50k by Loughborough University's Enterprise Projects Group (EPG) to develop the Toolkit.

To guarantee the applicability of this toolkit, the Institute for Design Innovation has partnered with CitizensUK. This collaboration is crucial in ensuring the DfP Toolkit responds to social innovation teams' actual needs in developing citizen-centred public policy.

EPG funding is available to support academic staff, research staff, and research students in creating impact from their work, and it aims to accelerate the creation of social, cultural, and economic impact through research-informed knowledge exchange. This has allowed the appointment of a postdoctoral researcher and the onboarding of a top-level external advisor.

More information is available on the project's website: policyinnovation.design.

To find out more about Loughborough University's Accelerator funding opportunities, please see their website.