History
2025
The centre was reopened in 2025. Since the closing of the Centre for Design Research a decade ago, the design research landscape in Denmark has developed into somewhat fragmented directions that only have sporadic, weakly established interaction interfaces. However, we argue the current societal and planetary crisis and challenges, that design can adress are too grand to be individually tackled by each research institution. With the reopening the centre is focused on the following core aims.
- Be a strong national voice in an international forum to drive Danish design research
- Support public dissemination of design research
- Promote design research funding applications to tackle significant problems
Today the centre includes representatives from all university level institutions: Aalborg University, The Royal Danish Acadmy, Aarhus University, IT University, Denmark's Technical University, Kolding School of Design, University of Southern Denmark, Copenhagen University, Copehagen Business School, Roskilde University as well as independent researchers from other private or public institutions.
2012-2025 CLOSED
The centre was closed by the end of 2012 based on the positive design research evaluation in 2010, that documented that the centre had achieved its purpose. The centre's tasks were reassigned to the schools of architecture and design.
2012
Since its restructuring in 2007, the centre has focused on the following core areas: 1) Research-building activities, including research training, 2) The Master in Design program, and 3) Research dissemination.
The centre creates professional and physical frameworks for researchers across institutions to meet, exchange experiences, and identify synergies and collaboration opportunities in research projects, where different academic strengths of the environments can inspire and benefit one another.
Regular meetings between the schools’ research leaders, the centre director, and the centre’s research coordinator in the Coordination Committee ensure continuity and progress in inter-institutional collaboration. The research group within the centre secretariat forms the academic foundation for the secretariat’s offerings of courses, research meetings, and other networking activities across the schools.
Furthermore, the centre has hosted an annual research meeting, an annual Ph.D. course, and has published 10 issues of Mind Design each year.
2011
The government established the Design2020 vision committee, where the Centre for Design Research contributed to the Ministry of Culture’s work in mapping the design research environments nationally and internationally.
The third cohort of the Master in Design program completed their education, and the fourth cohort, comprising 31 students, was admitted.
Following the government change in the fall of 2011, the centre, along with the architecture and design schools, was moved from the Ministry of Culture to the Ministry of Research, Innovation, and Higher Education.
Three annual allocations of research funds to the institutions’ research environments have been part of the centre’s ongoing operations. In total, the centre distributed research funds to 74 projects, amounting to approximately 19 million DKK between 2005 and 2011.
2010
The Centre for Design Research was evaluated by an external, international research panel. The evaluation was positive and was highlighted in the article Flotte ord til dansk designforskning (High Praise for Danish Design Research) in Politiken on November 14, 2010.
2009
The second cohort of the Master in Design program completed their education with an external examination, and the third cohort was established.
2008
Since 2008, the centre has annually offered research training in design to its Ph.D. students, with participation also open to Ph.D. students from other institutions.
The centre established and operates the research journal Artifact. In addition to being an internationally recognized dissemination channel for design research, Artifact helps build the centre’s network and secure a place for Danish design research on the global design research map. Artifact is now an Open Access journal available online to everyone.
The centre’s new communication platforms were developed through a longer process involving an interest analysis conducted in collaboration with the Coordination Committee and the Steering Group in 2008. This analysis focused on the business sector and revealed that companies were interested in the centre’s research and wanted to receive information about research projects.
The centre’s communication efforts aim to disseminate research results and inform about the potential of design research as a catalyst for innovation. Besides written dissemination, the centre was also actively involved in broader outreach events, such as Forskningens Døgn (Research Day) with a science café on fashion research and a dialogue meeting with the design industry on research and education.
2007
The Centre for Design Research was restructured. A new centre director, Dorthe Mejlhede, was appointed, and an independent advisory research committee was established to distribute the centre’s research funds to the research units at the institutions. The master’s program, annual research meetings, and coordination committee continued as before. The first cohort of the Master in Design program completed their education with an external examination, and the second cohort was established.
The centre launched a professional communication and dissemination initiative, including the publication of the web magazine Mind Design in both Danish and English and revamped its website to serve as a portal for the Danish design research community. A new visual identity was created for the centre.
The online magazine Mind Design aimed to efficiently communicate design research activities and results to both the centre’s researchers and external stakeholders, including industry representatives. Subscriptions to Mind Design were free, and it was published in both Danish and English.
2006
A mid-term evaluation of the centre was conducted in 2006. Based on this evaluation, the Ministry of Culture decided in the fall of 2006 to appoint a new chairman of the centre’s steering group, Professor, Dr. Phil. Morten Kyndrup, and in the spring of 2007, to restructure the centre with new statutes.
2005
The Master in Design program was established as a two-year, user-funded, part-time master’s level education. The program was offered to practicing designers, architects, design teachers, and individuals in design-related industries. The purpose of the program was to address the changing conditions faced by the design profession today and to provide graduates with opportunities for theoretical and methodological advancement.
2004
Since 2004, the centre has annually gathered all design researchers from the schools for research meetings, where topics such as research-based education and design theory have been addressed, both by the centre’s own researchers and through expert presentations from other research environments nationally and internationally. Additionally, the centre has contributed to professional development within the design field through courses, seminars, and workshops involving the centre’s researchers and Ph.D. students.
2003
The Centre for Design Research was established in June 2003. It was led by a steering group composed of the rectors of the four institutions and two international design research experts. The centre’s academic activities were driven by a coordination committee consisting of the institutions’ research leaders.
In 2000, the Danish Evaluation Institute, EVA, evaluated the design education programs at the Danish Design School, the Design School Kolding, the Aarhus School of Architecture, the Royal Danish Academy’s School of Architecture, and the Glass and Ceramic School on Bornholm. One of the findings was an assessment that these programs represented invaluable values, but that these values were precarious due to a lack of a theoretical and research-based foundation.
Based on the evaluation, a unanimous Danish Parliament decided to initiate a process to integrate research-based support into these programs. This process involved enabling the two design programs, the Danish Design School and the Design School Kolding, to establish research-based teaching by hiring researchers under assistant and associate professor-like conditions and initiating several Ph.D. scholarships. Additionally, it was decided to establish the Centre for Design Research, tasked with coordinating research at the four design education institutions. According to the centre’s statutes, Section 12, the Ministry of Culture required that research at all four institutions be evaluated in 2010, after which the centre’s future role would be determined.