30School of Design Dedicated Design Centre As part of our commitment to developing new knowledge and directions for design, we also have a dedicated Centre for Design Research ( CfDR), which employs a team of contract researchers, working on projects funded by industry and external sponsors. The scale of our activity generates an exciting mix of live projects with industry and the public sector, which run in parallel with fundamental research and postgraduate programmes. For PhD candidates, this ensures that their own research can be linked- to or based- on direct involvement in our research themes and groups, live commercial projects and close contact with external experts and organisations. CfDR has an enviable track record of PhD completions based on this demanding mix of fundamental and live commercial research projects. Emma Jefferies PhD student profile " Having completed my degree in Multimedia Design at Northumbria University, I applied and was offered a University scholarship to further develop my knowledge around visual literacy in design education. A highlight during the first year of my PhD was receiving an award for a paper presented at the International Visual Literacy Conference in South Africa, this was a big honour and an experience I will never forget. Being dyslexic I have had difficulty engaging in doctoral study, but the PhD community in the School of Design and the Wellbeing Staff at Northumbria University have been extremely supportive. The PhD community itself has been very stimulating and is a joy to be around. I feel that the PhD, as I near the completion of the thesis, has developed my awareness of myself, changing the way I look at problems and engage with different types of research."

www. northumbria. ac. uk31 Benedict Singleton PhD student profile " My project work has been almost entirely practice- based and self- directed, including collaborations I've initiated with other artists, designers and so on. It's in an area called service design. I find service design interesting because it's about structuring and regulating interactions between people, rather than necessarily designing a new object. My PhD has been the most rewarding - and challenging - three years I've ever spent. I've enjoyed the freedom to govern my own direction according to my interests, to initiate collaborations with interesting people, to do the best work by far I've ever done. It's also been a tremendous door- opener, with opportunities to meet fascinating and sometimes formidable people. I'm now in a position to have greater personal influence over what it is that I'm doing. I've become more interested in tutoring at graduate level. It's not easy, finding your footing at the outset of a PhD, and I never thought that I'd be interested in helping people do that - but I've discovered I am." Awards and Recognition 2008 RAE In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise, a UK government review that evaluates research quality in Higher Education, a proportion of our School's research was identified as world class, with a high proportion being recognised nationally and internationally. Our Centre for Design Research has also been recognised for its work across a number of sectors over the years. The Centre's awards and commendations are varied and impressive. Its most recent accolade came as a result of the animated service developed for Bio Transformations' innovative work in cancer care, which received high profile coverage in the national press Partnerships As well as collaborating with international partners such as Continental, Diageo, Intel, Johnson and Johnson, NHS, Nike, Nissan, Nokia, Pfizer, Philips, Rolls Royce, and Unilever, we are committed to steering the development of UK design activity through our engagement with the D& AD, Design Research Society, the Design Business Association, the Design Council, the British Design Initiative and the Royal Society of Arts.