About

Since it was founded, the Swiss Design Network has been promoting and fostering the development, quality and constant improvement of design research in the Swiss Universities of Design and Art.

To this day, the SDN has organized eleven internationally renowned symposia and published their proceedings. It offers its direct support to research projects, participating in the research debate on a national and international level.

• In lobbying for and briefing national institutions and organisations involved in design research and its funding;

• in acting as a platform for scientific exchange and debate through workshops, publications and conferences, online and offline;
• in fostering, supporting and networking the next generation of design researchers;
• and in cultivating dialogue among Heads of Research in Switzerland and abroad.

Established in 2003, the SDN was financed equally by the Swiss Universities of Art and Design with the support of the CTI (Federal Comittee for Technology and Innovation) until 2006. From 2007 to 2013 the SDN operated as a commission of the CHAD until 2014 when the SDN was again incorporated as an independent association. Its board is composed of delegates of the Design Research Institutes of all seven Swiss Universities of Art and Design in Switzerland.

Each member institute is engaged in research with its own particular design research focus. Discover the different institutes and design research projects: