Neighbourhood as a Biotope (Wijk als Biotoop - WaB) focuses on enhancing biodiversity in urban areas by fostering collaboration between people, nature, and technology. The project brings together 15 partners, including municipalities, nature foundations, technology companies, and diverse groups of residents, …

In the face of increasingly complex societal challenges, the field of social design is being called upon to deepen its ability to create long-term, systemic impact. This project, conducted with five experienced social designers and one workshop in our ESConference in 2025, explored how systems thinking, …

Future Proof Labs (FPL) was a four-year research project funded by CLICKNL. It was fundamentally oriented toward co-design in contexts of societal transition. The project brought together academic researchers, practitioners, and a broad network of social design bureaus to collaboratively develop and …

Digital services are becoming the default way to access public information, pursue an education, get healthcare, and engage in civic life. Yet for millions of people, these services remain frustrating to use or completely inaccessible. Legal frameworks such as the European Accessibility Act (EAA) and …

How do citizens, designers, policymakers, and local entrepreneurs actually work together in ways that are inclusive, sustainable, and effective? Collaboration in urban innovation is often treated as a matter of method or structure, but what happens when timelines clash, trust falters, or understanding …

In their relatively short existence, the Expertisenetwork Systemic Co-design (ESC) (ESC) puts these aspirations into practice. As an adventurous and open-ended escapade, ESC is building a community of engaged people around shared challenges, who learn together, create new social narratives, develop capacities, …

This book offers a comprehensive, practice-based exploration of Systemic Co-Design (SCD) as it is applied to society’s most complex and urgent transitions. Drawing on collaborative projects from the Expertisenetwork Systemic Co-Design (ESC), it portrays Systemic Co-Design not as a fixed framework but …

In a rapidly evolving world, the need for innovative approaches to societal challenges is more critical than ever. As partners of the Network Applied Design Research (NADR), we believe that applied design research can be a promising approach for addressing complex issues in many domains, such as health-care, …

Emergency care (from ambulance to emergency room) is focused on somatic care: fixing the body. When a patient with mental dysregulation who experiences ‘disproportionate feelings like fear, anger, sadness or confusion, possibly with associated behaviours’ (Van de Glind et al. 2023) does not get appropriate …

Het lectoraat Co-Design van Hogeschool Utrecht doet met een systemisch-inclusieve ontwerpende aanpak praktijkgericht onderzoek, om complexe maatschappelijke vraagstukken te helpen oplossen. Binnen die onderzoeken stellen we vragen over het ontwerpproces en de mensen die daarbij betrokken zijn. Hoe kun …