Meet Our Partners

With more than 2.000 students and a 350-strong research team, the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering at the Delft University of Technology is one of the world’s leading design schools. Industrial Design Engineering, referred to as IDE, built an excellent reputation. Its recognition is due to strong links with industry, government agencies, and NGOs and a clear purpose manifested in developing ethical and sustainable solutions. Seven thousand alumni bring their design skills to a wide range of sectors and disciplines. TU Delft has been ranked 11th best Art & Design school in the world by QS World University Rankings for 2021. 

Umeå Institute of Design (UID) at Umeå University offers a rare blend between local and global in a unique Scandinavian setting. UID hosts competitive, professional and international design education programmes. These are supported by leading research and cutting-edge technical facilities. Research at UID addresses current and emerging practices in design from perspectives of programmatic and practice-based research. 

The Institute for Design Informatics at the University of Edinburgh promotes the design of systems for better human-data interaction. Their work takes place in diverse settings such as health, culture, mobility, and finance. It explores design from, with, and by data. The central concern is the design of flows of data that sustain and enhance human values. Relevant technologies range from the internet of things, through blockchains, to robotics, speech recognition, data visualisation, interaction design, and social computing. 

With close to 39.000 students (including approximately 2.000 international students), over 3.000 PhD students, and 9.000 employees (research and administrative), the University of Copenhagen is the largest and most competitive research and education institution in Denmark. Turing Award winner Peter Naur and 3 ACM fellows founded the Department of Computer Sciences at the University of Copenhagen (DIKU) in 1970.  The first of its kind in Denmark, DIKU has grown from 10 staff and 550 students to around 130 staff and 1.200 students. It offers bachelor’s, master’s and PhD degrees in computer science. 

The Department of Digital Design and Information Studies is one of the strongest academic IT environments in Europe and attracts scholars and PhD students from all over the world. It focuses on information technology as a feature of people’s everyday lives and futures, with a strong connection between theory and practice and a great number of national and international collaborations. Aarhus University was founded in 1928. It is the largest and second oldest research university in Denmark. The university is ranked among the top 100 world’s best universities, and its alumni include Bjarne Stroustrup (inventor of C++). 

The Transport and Telecommunication Institute is the largest private STEM university and research institution in Latvia. It focuses on providing studies at bachelor, master, and PhD level in such key fields as Computer Science, ICT, Robotics, Logistics and Transport, Aviation, Business, and Management. The main research directions include ICT (Telematics), Smart Solution in Transport and Logistics, Digital Society, and Economy.

Royal Philips is a leading health technology company focused on improving people’s health. Philips leverages advanced technology and deep clinical and consumer insights to deliver integrated solutions. Philips Experience Design is the Functional Lead for Design. Our competencies include co-creation, design innovation, strategic design, service design, data visualisation, people research, UX and UI design, product design, IP generation, and trend research. 

The Digital Life Center at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences focuses on innovative technology, sensors, and digital information in everyday life. Applied research is carried out on technology, big data, and user-centred design methods, with the Amsterdam region and beyond as a ‘Living Lab.’ 

The Heart Lung Center Leiden is part of Leiden University Medical Center. It offers top clinical care to patients with heart, vascular, and pulmonary diseases.

By combining technology with skills and knowledge, they provide innovative and top referral care. They work with other departments and partners to diagnose and treat cardiovascular and pulmonary diseases. The Heart Lung Center Leiden has several research lines covering cardiovascular and respiratory disease and medicine. These research lines involve basic and clinical research have a strong interactive focus, thereby utilizing novel insights into pathological mechanisms for progress towards future therapeutic and preventive treatment options.

The Department of Design is the main Italian center for scientific research in the field of design, rooted in the Italian design culture and oriented to explore new disciplinary frontiers, putting design at the service of contemporary challenges.

Established in 2002, the Department has given institutional form to a long path of design development at the Politecnico di Milano, whose students and professors have become fundamental figures in the construction of Italian design culture.

Since its establishment, the Department has enhanced its historical roots of polytechnic matrix, strengthening its research and innovation capabilities in fields traditionally linked to Made in Italy. To this vocation it combines the exploration of frontier themes, inserting itself in a vast network of relationships that today make it a center of international relevance for research in the field of design.

Lucidminds AI is an R&D collective and a resident member of the Dutch SDG House in Amsterdam. It creates AI frameworks and products such as the Augmented Collective Intelligence framework within the CivicAI initiative, or an agent-based Green Urban Scenarios framework and set of microservices for the TreesAI platform which has been featured by the World Economic Forum and COP26.

The Advanced Care Research Centre (ACRC) is a multi-disciplinary research Centre combining expertise across fields. These include medicine and other care professions, life sciences, engineering, informatics, data, social sciences, and design. The ACRC’s vision is to instigate high‐quality data‐driven, personalised, and affordable care that supports the independence, dignity, and quality of life of people in later life living in their own homes and supported care environments. Over seven years, the ACRC has delivered personalised care enabled by data science, artificial intelligence, assistive technologies, and robotics. These are embedded in health and social care systems that are highly responsive to the wishes, priorities, and needs of individual people in later life. 

The Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions, referred to as AMS, is a joint initiative by TU Delft, MIT and Wageningen University based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. These academic institutions partner with government, business, and societal organisations. AMS was founded following a Municipality of Amsterdam tender to develop an institute that applies scientific knowledge to actual urban projects. As a world-leading research institute, we educate talent and support engineers, designers, digital engineers, and natural/social scientists as they work together to develop and valorise interdisciplinary metropolitan solutions. 

Clearbox AI is a high-tech start-up based in Turin, Italy. It is at the forefront of developing MLOps solutions to enable trustworthy and human-centered AI in enterprises. Our flagship product, AI Control Room, helps managers and data scientists efficiently assess, monitor, and improve “black boxes”- AI models that are difficult to understand, evaluate, control, and trust. We enable robust, explainable, and monitorable AI models in enterprises at scale. 

Open Future is a think tank advocating for an open and public Internet in Europe and beyond. Open Future supports the digital commons, a shared and public internet, and opening the access to knowledge and culture. We anticipate tomorrow’s digital challenges to shape today’s digital policies. We do that by putting our knowledge and experience at the service of the EU institutions and civil society organisations to enact a meaningful legislative change.