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1. Pilot three regional public Zero Carbon Design Innovation Centres as accelerators of local green industrial renewal:
1. Pilot three regional public Zero Carbon Design Innovation Centres as accelerators of local green industrial renewal:
To bridge the gap between research and real-world application of green innovation through design.
Recommendation summary: DESNZ, DLUHC and UKRI work together to pilot three regional public Zero Carbon Design Innovation Centres within new Investment Zones and Net Zero Innovation Portfolio funded projects.
Delivering on the Nurse Review’s recommendation to optimise and increase the number of regional translational research organisations, these pilot local Innovation Centres would build translational design and sustainability capacity within sites of existing governmental investment and level up access to the latest climate-based research. The Centres would build on existing local design strengths and serve two functions:
Enable the best net zero research to find a home in industry, by connecting local businesses to academic institutes, and supporting these businesses to use this new knowledge to drive design-led R&D which decarbonises their products and processes.
Work with local authorities and the public sector support public and place-based innovation, through better service and policy design grounded in leading climate research. The Centres could also support quality design within placemaking and local green transition strategies, enabling investment and talent ‘stick’ to the area.
The Centres would complement UKRI’s existing design-based investment Future Observatory’s Green Transition Ecosystems but focus on building practical green design capability specifically outside of design industries.
Rationale and context
The Government’s Innovation Strategy champions design as a critical enabler of innovation. Design fuels our innovation system, bridging invention and application, de-risking R&D, and creating the quality places which investment needs to take root.
The environmental benefits of new ideas and technologies can only be realised when innovations are adopted and used. More investment in discovery research alone won’t be enough to mitigate or adapt to climate change. Design enables successful late-stage R&D that drives sustainable industrial and behaviour change and will therefore be foundational to accelerating the impact of net zero innovation investment.
The UK is already home to centres of world-leading design excellence, from industrial design in East Renfrewshire and Tameside, to Reading’s and Belfast’s thriving digital design industries. These clusters can help catalyse R&D in sectors and regions of our future economy, such as digital, clean transport, and the circular economy.
Clusters are about more than geographic proximity, they are about local relationships, neighbourhoods, and identity. Strategic use of design can improve the quality of places, enabling for investment and human talent to ‘stick’ to a regional centre, supporting green and equitable local economic regeneration.
Supporting asks
Strengthen design leadership within innovation infrastructure: Existing innovation agencies from ARIA to Office for Science and Technology Strategy and the Catapults should explore employing a Chief Design Officer; local authorities should consider employing a Chief Place Officer.
