Objective
Be recognised as an exemplar design institution for our influence, impact and enterprise.
We operate as a Non Departmental Public Body (NDPB) funded through an annual grant from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), with co-sponsorship from the Department for Culture Media & Sport (DCMS). We have a Royal Charter and charitable status and employ approximately 60 people, including specialists in design, business change management, education, research, public affairs and communications.
Our business model is to stay small and lean, working to achieve our results with others. As a small strategic body our aspirations can only be achieved through a collaborative and entrepreneurial approach, leveraging funds to amplify our impact.
Over the period of our last strategic plan, we succeeded in multiplying our income eight-fold (for every £1 of grant in aid, we raised £8 of further funding for our programmes). We achieved a four-fold increase in the number of businesses we worked with, and a near four-fold increase in the number of people engaged in our activities.
We collaborate with and advise other international organisations and governments on design policy. We benchmark ourselves against our partners and work with external agencies to improve our performance. For example, Forum for the Future carried out our environmental audits, which we implemented. We are also an Investor in People.
We ran InterSections, a two day conference in Newcastle, in October 2007. It was chaired by Jeremy Myerson from the RCA and it brought together 34 leading thinkers in design to consider how design is evolving and how this is affecting its relationships with other fields.
Listen to audio recordings of the event or download the discussion transcripts