The Value of Engineering Design Research - UK Study
Design Society members now have access to a database of impactful Engineering Design research project examples they can use to justify the undertaking of future research projects in design, and/or using design methods and tools. A report was created to demonstrate this data, how Design Society members might use this and some case study examples.
The research presented within this report was first envisioned at the Design Society Rigi Meeting 2023 in Paris, France. During Science Day, where attendees include the Design Society Board of Management, Advisory Board, Special Interest Groups and Chapter Leaders, and other guests including representatives of SNCF Research (host of the meeting), it was identified that Design Society members can face the challenge of justifying the value of engineering design. This value is inherent in engineering design research, however, it has been harder to justify in recent years with a lack of visibility of the impact of engineering design. This value is important to explicitly state to increase the chances of securing research funding for Design Society members and to influence policy and strategy on funding of engineering design research in the future as is an aim of the Design Society as a charitable company.
An opportunity was identified to analyse the outcomes of the UK Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021 data to identify key examples of the value of engineering design and use this to create case studies that can be used by all Design Society members in the future. A future goal of this research is to use this small research project as a preliminary study to identify if this method of enquiry was appropriate and valuable. Future research projects may include using other databases as identified by Design Society members, or to create a database using the Special Interest Groups to create a database of worldwide case study examples. We highly encourage all DS members to consider if they are aware of any other databases that could be used to generate further examples of the value of engineering design.
Due to the nature of this research enquiry. This study is only focused on impactful research provided by engineering design researchers and therefore does not represent the Design Society community in whole at this time. The outcomes of this research do not intend to exclude any individual or institutional contribution or to purposefully exclude recognition for their efforts. The full dataset has been organised and to allow individual Design Society members to extract relevant examples of valuable and impactful Engineering Design research when required.
This research is the first of its kind, directly funded by the Design Society Special Interest Group Fund and we hope that the value of the outcomes will encourage others to apply to this fund to conduct similar research for the benefit of Design Society members worldwide.
Access the report at: https://doi.org/10.35199/report.valueEDR