Ten-year Irish design strategy unveiled

A ten-year international programme to push design up the business agenda in Ireland and Northern Ireland is being kick-started by former Design Council director Toby Scott.


Scott has secured €1.25m (£0.84m) over three years to run initiatives out of his newly established Centre for Design Innovation, based in Sligo, Ireland. Understood to be Ireland’s first design promotion body, the centre will promote design effectiveness and innovation to businesses and the public sector.


The initial funding has been secured from Enterprise Ireland, an agency of the Department for Enterprise, Trade and Employment. Scott anticipates that the ongoing programme will require annual funding of between €2m (£1.34m) and €3m (£2m), and that future funding will be generated from multiple sources.


Scott intends to launch a varied agenda for the Centre for Design Innovation’s initiatives. An ‘action-based research programme’, tracking the effective use of design on a portfolio of companies, will launch in February and Scott is in discussion with key partners to roll out a design MBA course by 2011. An Innovation City project, inspired by the Design Council’s Dott programme, will also launch in 2009.


The Centre for Design Innovation is launching its brand identity, designed by Carton LeVert, during Irish Design Week next week. Its website, www.designinnovation.ie, has been designed by New Media and will launch later this month. See News in Depth, page 7

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