The project Creating Sustainable Innovation through Design for Behaviour Change will result in the first holistic overview of design for behaviour change as a driver for sustainable innovation. This will provide a basis for developing successful strategies for the effective implementation of sustainable innovation through design for behaviour change by public and private service providers with focus on SMEs.

Design is a significant driver for sustainable innovation, because it is able to realise new insights and perspectives that are people-centred as well as manage uncertainty due to its catalytic multi-disciplinary nature. Recognised for some time, design for behaviour change is as yet lacking an overarching and coherent framework to include ecological, economic and social perspectives and approaches. The best-known area of design for behaviour change currently is sustainable design, followed by design for health and well-being, safety design, and social design. While research has shown significant opportunities, realisation in professional and public contexts is only emerging.

The project brings together a significant inter-disciplinary and multi-institutional network of key national and international academic partners and non-academic stakeholders with an interest in sustainable innovation through design for behaviour change. It will thus bring together two sets of stakeholders: key proponents of design for behaviour change from academic research, and relevant public and private service providers with an interest in facilitating behaviour change through design. This will allow the project uniquely to explore current key approaches to design for behaviour change in a wide range of applications, including safety design, design for health and well-being, and social design.

The project brings together a broad range of institutions, scholars and project partners involved in progressing design for behaviour change. These are:

Lead Institution:

• University of Wolverhampton  – Principal Investigator: Kristina Niedderer (mindful and social design), Advisor: Robin Gutteridge (health and psychology)

Academic Partners:

• University of Warwick: Co-investigator: Rebecca Cain (design for health and wellbeing), Project researcher: James Mackrill (ergonomics), Adviser: Edward Gardiner (behavioural sciences, social design)
• Loughborough University: Co-investigator: Andrew Morris (safety design)
• Lancaster University: Co-investigator: Stephen Clune (sustainable design), Adviser: Martyn Evans (design management & innovation)
• Royal College Art: Co-investigator: Dan Lockton (Design with Intent)
• University of Twente (NL): Co-investigator: Geke Ludden (persuasive technology)
• TU Delft, NL: Adviser: Paul Hekkert (emotion/behavioural design)

To find out further information on Creating Sustainable Innovation through Design for Behaviour Change please go to the project page here