Partnerships:
Design challenges? Access design expertise with funded collaboration opportunities
If your organisation has a design-related challenge, an opportunity has arisen to access the skills of a talented Design student, and up to £1000 of funding.
Brunel University’s Product and Industrial Design courses are amongst the highest rated in the UK. Since 2004, Designplus has brought together students from these courses with industry partners to work on a huge range of Design projects.
The students are in their fourth and final year, and the work is undertaken as their ‘Major Project’, the culmination of the knowledge they have gained on their course plus, typically, a year working in industry. Standards are very high, with work exhibited at the MADE IN BRUNEL exhibition in June of each year, and included in an internationally distributed book.
Students work on a variety of real-life design challenges, supported and guided by their supervising tutor. For example, Lightweight Medical have been successfully working with Brunel final year students for 3 years. A recent brief required a final year student to design a more effective treatment system for premature babies with jaundice. Roisin Monnington was selected and her resulting work earned her an HSBC Innovation Award.
"Roisin has approached the project in a manner more akin to that of an industry professional than an undergraduate student. The project has been delivered to time and cost and Lightweight Medical is a happy client.” Neil Tierney, Director of R&D, Lightweight Medical Ltd
For the first time, funding has become available to support companies and students entering into these partnerships. Up to £1000 is available to organisations with fewer than 250 employees, who have not previously worked with Designplus or Brunel Design. The only requirement is that the funding is matched, either through direct project costs, or through the cost of your own management time. If you don’t qualify for funding, you are still very welcome to participate.
This is a no-risk opportunity for you to have a dedicated Design student working for your company. Whether you need extra resource to address a planned deliverable, or would like to pick up a project that you’ve been unable to resource due to a lack of time or budget, this is an invaluable chance to progress your business objectives.
End July: Deadline to express an interest in working with a student
August: Discussion of your project brief
17 September: Deadline for signing Final Briefs and scheme documentation
Late September: Briefing sessions held with final year students, short selection process
October to late April: Students complete projects
June 2011: Projects exhibited at MADE IN BRUNEL
To express an interest in participating, contact Designplus on hello@designplus.org.uk
See examples of previous Designplus collaborations
See more on this year’s Made In Brunel exhibition, and browse Major Projects from 2009