Design

Human-centred design is for businesses of any size who are interested in early-stage innovation strategy. For start-ups, strategic design helps get brilliant ideas to the right market. For established businesses, it helps reposition or expand their offering.

People make logical decisions in the pursuit of science, technology and commerce. People are also emotional beings, and those emotions can drive us far harder than reason. When business success is dependent on human behaviour to do the right thing, your business should seek support from human-centred designers.

By focusing on what people need, how people behave, what they aspire to, businesses can use these key insights to achieve greater success in the market.

The Design in Innovation team at Innovate UK Business Connect can help you whether you are:  

  • A designer looking for opportunities to engage with businesses on activities needing human-centred design support
  • A business wanting to understand how to deploy human-centred design in your business
  • A business wondering whether human-centred design might be a valuable capability to add into your R&D portfolio

Specifically you might want to:

  • Look for funding and opportunities to apply design in different sectors and industries
  • Find a designer with the right expertise to collaborate with and help your business develop
  • Get some quick insights about how companies are best utilising human centred design in their R&D

You can also keep up to date with news, funding and events across the Design sector by connecting with the Innovate UK Business Connect Design Foundations group on LinkedIn.

Our current focus in this area

Empowering innovators to drive positive change through the power of design.

Design Foundations is aimed at helping businesses engage with customers, users, or wider stakeholders through early-stage, people and planet centred research to identify high-value innovation opportunities and generate more innovative products, services and business models.

Innovate UK Business Connect’s Innovation Canvas is designed to help you create value from innovation and identify the changes needed to make your idea succeed. It provides a framework for assessing the strengths and weaknesses of a specific project, identifying the most urgent challenges to overcome, and prioritising what action to take.

Ignite Labs provides a dynamic space for UK innovators to stay ahead of the curve. Our programme offers insights, tools, and connections that help you navigate and succeed in the ever-evolving economy of tomorrow.

Related Opportunities

Design Foundations Round 6

Opens: 04/11/2024   Closes: 15/01/2025

UK registered organisations can apply for a share of up to £2m for people centred and systemic design projects to influence, inform and de-risk R&D activities.

More Information

Collaborative R&D: Creative Catalyst

Opens: 09/12/2024   Closes: 29/01/2025

UK registered businesses can apply for a share of up to £2 million for projects that develop new innovative products and tools for the UK creative industry.

More Information

Contracts for Innovation: Accessible Information on Coaches

Opens: 16/12/2024   Closes: 12/02/2025

Apply for a share of up to £680k to develop an affordable, user friendly hardware and software solution to provide accessible audio visual information on coaches.

More Information

Related Case Studies

Ignite Labs x BridgeAI: Transforming Innovators' AI Journey

Ignite Labs x BridgeAI: Transforming Innovators' AI Journey

Explore how Ignite Labs x BridgeAI empowers businesses to harness the potential of AI for innovation, offering insights, cross-sector collaboration, and funding opportunities.

Jiva.ai: Simplifying AI for industry, using a no code AI platform

Jiva.ai: Simplifying AI for industry, using a no code AI platform

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