Working with designers, businesses, academics and the public to promote innovation
04/19/2012 00:00:00
Led by Imagination Lancaster (Lancaster University) with the Storey Creative Industry Centre as UK partners, the project known as PROUD (or People Researchers and Organisations Using Design for Co-Creation and Innovation) will engage with public authorities, local business, academics and communities to respond to three regional challenges, through innovative co-design processes.
Keynote speaker at the event will be Stéphane Vincent, founder of the French innovation lab La 27e Région, a laboratory for the co-design of public policy.
The first PROUD co-design project will be introduced at this event; a collaboration with Lancashire County Council in partnership with Lancaster City Council to develop a shared aspiration and vision for the Lancaster City Park project, going beyond public consultation through the use of an effective co-design approach.
Lancaster University’s Dr Leon Cruickshank, who will lead PROUD in the UK said: ‘Co-design is an approach which enables a wide range of people to have a creative contribution in the formulation and solution of a problem. Going beyond mere consultation, co-design builds and deepens an equal collaboration between citizens affected by or attempting to resolve a particular challenge’.
The launch will be held in the Imagination Lab (LICA building) at Lancaster University - a new co-design space equipped with advanced rapid prototyping facilities to enable communities to work alongside designers to model and test their ideas for new products, processes and spaces.
To read more about the PROUD project visit - imagination.lancs.ac.uk/activities/PROUD.