Labs
DESIS Labs are groups of academics, researchers and students who orient their design and research activities towards social innovation. They operate at the local scale with local partners and, in collaboration with other DESIS Labs, they actively participate in large-scale projects and programs.
Activities
DESIS Labs are engaged in different kinds ofdesign and research projects and in networking activities.
- Local projects.They are projects and research programs developed in collaboration with local partners in the framework of the ordinary design classes (that is, by students and their tutors) or as ad hoc initiatives promoted by the DESIS Lab (in collaboration with professional designers and researchers). Or they can be a combination of the two: articulated programs where student work and professional activities are mixed.
- Regional and Global projects. They are projects and research programs promoted and supported by several DESIS Labs, dealing with complex problems,large systems or regional and global initiatives. Each Lab operates as a research partner who brings its specific competences and context sensitivity to the project.
- Networking activities. They are activities needed to establish mutually beneficial relationships between DESIS Labs and other possible partners (to initiate and coordinate large scale projects and research). They include active participation in the DESIS Website in terms of management and content providing (feeding it with relevant information and using it as an enabling platform to support large scale projects and research).
Organization
DESIS Labs are teams of professors, researchers and students based in Design Schools and design-oriented universities, and officially in charge of promoting social innovation initiatives. They can be extensions of already existing entities (labs, institutes and centers) or brand new labs created for this specific purpose.
