Innovative research commissioned by the Western Development Commission (WDC) and carried out by researchers at NUI Galway has highlighted the potential for a doubling of the workforce employed in the Creative Sector over the next 10 years. Additionally this could lead to up to €150 million in additional exports per annum from the sector – a key area of growth identified. The report is a follow up to the WDC’s much heralded Creative West report (PDF Download) published in February 2009, which in itself established the creative economy in the Western Region as being internationally significant with 4,775 businesses employing 11,000 people directly.

The follow up analysis entitled –“Creative Sector in The Western Region – Future Growth Trajectories” (PDF Download), was published this week by the WDC. Complied by a research team led by Dr. Patrick Collins of NUI Galway’s Centre for Innovation and Structural Change (CISC) the report maps out the future growth scenarios for an industrial sector that has been bucking international trends in terms of growth.

Understanding the Return on Investment in Companies, National Industry, Programmes & Policies, Economy & Society

A lack of knowledge and tools to evaluate the rate of return on design investment is often cited as a severe barrier to advancing the understanding of design’s value in Government. With design firmly on the European political agenda as part of the strategy ‘Innovation Union’, policy-makers across Europe will be looking at how design can meet challenges in industry, services and society.

This third SEE Policy Booklet provides an overview of current practice in design evaluation and identifies actions to improve these methods at micro and macro levels in both the private and public sectors. The four sections are:

1. Return on investment in design for individual companies
2. Return on investment in design in national industry
3. Return on investment of public funds in design programmes or policies
4. Role of design and its impact on the national economy and society.

This publication is an output of the European network SEE, funded by ERDF/INTERREG IVC, which has been engaging with national and regional governments to integrate design into public policy.

Download your copy from: www.seeproject.org/publications.

Policy, Innovation, Design

Issue 5 of the SEE Design Bulletin is available for down load at:

http://www.seeproject.org/publications

Design Wales is calling upon the National Assembly for Wales to urge the Welsh Assembly Government to consider the potential significant role for design in future innovation, public service and social enterprise policies and programmes. This is in the light of increased commitment to design agenda by other nations around the world and in preparation for the new Innovation Policy published by the European Commission.

On the 14th October Design Wales launched the MANIFESTO: Design for Innovation in Wales: Industry, Services and Society. On the same day, the e-petition ‘Design for Innovation in Wales’ was opened on the National Assembly for Wales e-petition website.

Sign the petition.

The second policy booklet (PDF) from the SEE Project was recently published. There will be a total of four policy booklets over the course of the programme.

Design thinking can be a tool for realising social innovation and sustainable development by contributing to long-term behaviour change and integrating the user experience into significantly improved products, processes, services and systems. This Policy Booklet outlines the rationale behind policy intervention in this domain, explores how design can be employed to address social innovation and sustainable development, provides illustrative case studies and proposes policy recommendations. We have applied this framework under four headings: communities, industry, the public sector and policy-making.

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On the 9th November 2009, the SEE project launched its first Policy Booklet on Integrating Design into Regional Innovation Policy (PDF) at the SEE network summit in Copenhagen. SEE is a network of eleven European partners working to lobby our national and regional governments to assimilate design and creativity into public policy. The project is co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the INTERREG IVC programme.

The SEE Policy Booklet presents an overview of innovation policy priorities in the SEE partner regions. These priorities were identified from national and regional policy documents and contrasted with the strategic priorities for innovation identified by the European Commission. From this comparative analysis six key issues emerged as common across the policy agendas:

• Innovation in Services
• Public Procurement
• Collaborative Clusters & Networks
• Lead Markets & Eco-innovation
• Intellectual Property Rights
• Broadening the Scope of Innovation

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Countries that wish to increase their competitive advantage have turned to design as a mechanism to add value to the goods and services that their indigenous companies produce. Recognising that those companies that use design are more successful than those that do not, they invest significant time and effort in promoting and supporting companies to overcome the barriers to its effective use. Their goal is to increase the demand for design.

Increasing demand is only one side of the equation however; it is just as important that there should be a broad and deep supply of designers who can provide services to business to help them add value to their products and services. Without them, an economy can be starved of a key input that helps to differentiate the goods and services it produces.

A range of interrelated issues governs the supply of designers who provide services to business. The role of education is critical, as is the aspiration of the individual and ultimately the market for their services. But there are also a number of other more subtle influences such as the role of the industry support bodies, the nature of continuous professional development and the business empathy of designers themselves.

This report examines the strengths and weaknesses of the sector and makes recommendations about how to build on those strengths in order to stimulate one small but important part of the economy that can create added-value to the economy as a whole. Given the similar barriers faced by the sector in Northern Ireland and Ireland, it makes sense to adopt a cooperative approach to optimise the potential of the sector.

Aidan Gough
DIRECTOR, STRATEGY & POLICY
InterTradeIreland

Download study (PDF, 568k)

Perhaps the first question should be whether “standard” and “innovation” should even be in the same sentence. However, I feel very strongly that there are certain systematic approaches to managing innovation that might not guarantee you’ll end up with a string of guaranteed innovations, but you’ll stand a much better chance of success if you apply some best practice.

Every day we hear calls to innovate our way out of the current crisis, but there is little practical, step-by-step how-to for organisations to apply. It was with great enthusiasm that I participated within a group to help the NSAI draft a National Workshop Agreement on a Guide to Good Practice in Innovation and Product Development Processes. It’s not a perfect document. How could it be after two day-long meetings? It is a start and highlights the need for a practical approach and more practical tools.

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Th UK Design Council recently published a rich qualitative study of design in action at eleven leading global organisations.

The study looked at the way design is used in these firms, how designers work with staff from other disciplines and how the design process is managed to deliver consistently successful results. How is design managed across complex, global, product and brand portfolios … we asked leading design teams how they select and organise their designers, and when they bring designers into the product or service development process. We also wanted to find out what skills today’s designers need in order to succeed.

The Institute of Designers Ireland has published Why Design to give second level students a greater degree of familiarity with design as a study path and as a career. Supported by the Office of the Minister of Education and Science, the guide offers a ‘snapshot’ of design courses currently on offer throughout the island of Ireland; a taste of the richness and diversity of design education at third level throughout the country

Tracy Fahey, President of the Institute of Designers in Ireland, speaking at the launch, commented on the value of sustaining design education in Ireland.

Currently, in Ireland, there is a real impetus towards the sustaining of a research and development culture in Ireland. Design plays a crucial role in terms of innovation and development. A good design education teaches students to problem-solve, to think creatively, to research options, to develop and test designs and to respond to client needs.

Read the press release

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