Exploring the intersection of design & futures thinking for sustainable futures

This research program is a collaborative, interdisciplinary, and far-reaching design foresight initiative. We recognise the existential threats to a sustainable future (species and planet), which fellow scholars have proffered, requires entirely new approaches to designing systems that are more collaborative, inclusive of different forms of knowledge, and capable of working with complexity, values, and diverse human and non-human interests to be effective and supportive of societal transformations. In 2025, we endeavour to have contributed to the development of new knowledge, which are built on evidence-based approaches and productive forms of collaboration and interaction between science, policy and government, industry, and civil society (c.f. Quadruple/quintuple Helix Model); while our goals are ambitious, this journey has the potential to align research with sustainable innovation solutions, leading to effective organisational processes for a successful long-term direction with positive public impact.

Captivated by the urgency to explore a transformative and life-centric vision for sustainable economic, social, and environmental development, the United Nation’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (UNDP, 2015) has brought into focus the wide scope of strategic decision-making across the interconnectedness and interdependency of global networks and actors. With the emergent themes of design thinking, and design-led innovation now widely recognized, specifically relevant are the intelligibility of design and strategy applied to the resolution of strategic organizational, and inter-organizational problems, challenges, and opportunities at hand. Meanwhile, conflicting observations in the practice of business (broadly speaking) suggest an excessive and obsessive focus on short-term results. Such short-termism, i.e., the inability to look beyond the ‘now’ is the cause (and the spirit of our collaboration) to develop a design foresight ‘triple/quadruple helix-like model’, whereby the emphasis is placed on the role of design (research), industry (practice), and government (incentives) as the emerging paradigm toward achieving the vision of a sustainable world.