We are pleased to share an upcoming funding opportunity for researchers interested in exploring how design-led interventions and arts and humanities methodologies can contribute to the green transition. The Design Generators will support innovative, design-led research projects that develop new approaches and methodologies within the arts and humanities.
Projects should apply design to address environmental sustainability, decarbonisation, circular economies, policy design and regenerative practices.
Please note that you must be based at a UK research organisation eligible for AHRC funding. You can learn more about the eligibility of your organisation here. The full economic cost (FEC) of your project can be up to £200,000. AHRC will fund 80% of the FEC. Awards can be between 9 to 12 months in duration. Applications will open on 3 November 2025 at 9:00am (UK time).
The Design Generators are funded by the Future Observatory: Design the Green Transition programme, in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).
What we are looking for
Design is a discipline that applies user, customer, citizen or community-centred approaches to creativity and invention to ensure more successful outcomes. These may include the built environment, physical products, digital, or other services and systems that underpin how we live. Success in this context may mean economic, social, environmental, or a combination of all three.
The Design Generators aim to fund innovative, design-led research projects that contribute to the green transition. They seek to generate new arts and humanities-based approaches and methodologies that harness design to address environmental sustainability, decarbonisation, circular economies, policy design and regenerative practices. Funding will be provided to:
co-develop interventions with a non-academic partner to assist sustained impact beyond the life of the grant
engage collaboratively with communities or stakeholders, ensuring relevance and responsiveness to lived experience
promote green transition-supportive behaviour change, either through deliberative policymaking and (de)regulation or through ‘nudging’
highlight the value of academic design research in addressing real-world, locally relevant challenges arising along the journey to net zero and a green economy
This round will focus on creating interventions within existing systems. These systems may include, but are not limited to, healthcare, food networks, governance structures, financial infrastructures, and other societal frameworks. We are particularly interested in projects that approach these systems from a community perspective and use design thinking and creative methodologies to identify leverage points for positive change.
Applicants should propose research that is collaborative, community-engaged, and scalable. Projects must be grounded in arts and humanities disciplines, drawing on methodologies including, but not limited to, design research, ethnography, and visual arts. We encourage researchers to work closely with communities, stakeholders and system actors to co-develop interventions that are contextually sensitive and have the potential to be scaled up. These interventions could be scaled up to benefit larger populations, influence policy, or be applied to parallel systems. The aim is to generate new knowledge and prototypes that not only respond to systemic challenges but also reimagine how systems could function more equitably, sustainably, and creatively.