UK-China Design Policy Network

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Driven by the growing recognition of the importance of design in national innovation, design policy is an emerging subject of research interest. Design policies are 'sets of rules, activities, and processes to support design through the reinforcement of design capabilities at all levels of the policy cycle' by DeEP. Governments in countries where design and innovation are considered core competitive advantage actively seek to implement policies to create encouraging environments for the prosperity of design innovation. Research into design policy in this context will focus on the relevance and effectiveness of government intervention within the design industry. There is an imperative to advance thinking through collaboration and to share experience. Networking and research in this subject has attracted growing investment. However, collaboration with partners outside of the EU is underdeveloped. A fast changing technology base and novel innovation models allows 'underdeveloped' countries to leap-frog conventional development patterns, with significant impact on the global innovation landscape. Each region can no longer consider its innovation policies in isolation. Collaboration with these countries is as important as with EU partners. This is especially relevant in the case of China, one of the biggest trade partners with EU and the largest R&D investor after the US. China now aims to transform its economy away from a reliance on low-skill and resource-intensive manufacturing, and has recognised the necessity of design innovation in achieving structural transformation of industries. However, these policies and their execution remain unclear outside of China and research in this field is still scarce. In the UK, design is viewed as an important and integral dimension of innovation policy. As one of the largest innovation exporters, it is strategically important for the UK's policy makers to gain knowledge of China, thus enabling them to contextualise their relevance to the UK's design industry and economy, and capture opportunities afforded by transformation in China. Moreover, no consideration has been given to how the UK might best develop policies which capitalise on the opportunities. The study aims to develop a UK-China network in design policy to facilitate interactions between UK and China, and between researchers and policy makers. This network is aimed at professional, educational, and government organizations which might contribute to the development and management of initiatives to either grow business or design capability and capacity. Through a series of workshops and seminars, the project will develop partnerships to share good practices in design policy development and to stimulate discussions on this topic. This project will also help build capacity in design policy research, and will inform the future development of the research networking theme. The project will conclude by undertaking a mapping exercise to understand the focuses and principles of policy making in each country; and from this, identify differences and similarities in the approaches taken by each country in supporting design innovation. This will in turn provide the basis for a generic model of design policy which will be disseminated at a final event to be held in London, and will be used to inform national and regional policies supporting the design sector.