Design for Growth and Prosperity
Antonio Tajani, the European Commission vice-president and commissioner for industry and entrepreneurship, recently announced a set of policy recommendations to ensure design is at the heart of driving innovation in the European economies. The report Design for Growth and Prosperity makes a total of 21 recommendations on a range of topics from zero tolerance of infringement to fostering a culture of design at every level of the education system.
“Design is at the heart of our innovation system”
Vice-President Tajani, launch of Design for Growth and Prosperity
The recommendations are made on the basis that a broad understanding of design will help Europe's enterprises to provide better products and services and increase the standard of living for EU citizens - and that while design is a key European asset (the EU's design sector has an annual turnover of €36 billion), it has not yet been fully exploited to foster competitiveness nor as a strategic means to encourage innovation.
What are the proposed recommendations for design policy?
The 21 policy recommendations of the European Design Leadership Board address six areas for strategic action:
- The global stage; including identifying and strengthening existing European Design Centres, and creating a 'Designed in the European Union' label;
- Europe's innovation system; including new methods to measure the growth impact of investment in design, and including design within innovation and business incubators and their networks;
- Europe's enterprises; including strengthening design innovation in SMEs and facilitating access to finance for design-led companies;
- The public sector; including increasing the use of design and designers in public sector innovation by establishing design labs;
- The research system; including embedding design research in Europe’s research system;
- The education system; including fostering a culture of design learning and encouraging Member States to support the development of design competencies for the 21st century.
Our programme of work and 'Design for Growth and Prosperity'
These recommendations are close to our own priorities in supporting a more active and wide reaching approach to design in central government - providing European framing for Design Council’s work in this area.
In particular our work building the capability and capacity of the public sector to use design; supporting the inclusion of design and 'design literacy' in the National Curriculum; promoting excellence in our design capabilities; increasing efficiency and user-centred approaches in public services; driving business growth and innovation; and building evidence on the UK design sector through our research. We are also currently working on a policy research project, supported by the European Design Innovation Initiative (EDII) and European Design Leadership board.
Our European Design Innovation Initiative project – Sharing Experience Europe
Sharing Experience Europe (SEE) is one of four major programmes being funded through the EDII. SEE is a network of 11 European partners sharing international best practice to positively influence design policy and programmes. Four of the partners - Design Council, Aalto University, Danish Design Centre and Design Wales – are running a sub-project looking specifically at the role of design-led innovation in the public sector (Design for Public Good – working title).
The scope of the Design for Public Good project is to identify examples of good practice in design-led innovation for policy making, public service delivery and radical innovations from the private sector that can be used for public good. The project will provide guidance on measuring progress and evaluating impact of such an approach; and set out a future vision for the public service whereby design led innovation is fully integrated. The aim is to raise quality, uptake, scale and impact of design-led innovation in the public realm. This project will report back in Spring 2013.
To find out more about this project contact Programme Manager, Bel Reed.