Professor Woodham was invited to be an international Expert Scientific Advisor for the Academy of Finland
15 Aug 2013
Professor Jonathan Woodham was invited to be one of two international Expert Scientific Advisors on a panel of four selected to evaluate the shortlisted proposals for the Academy of Finland’s industrial design initiative under its Research Council for Culture and Society. The underlying aim of this programme, with short-listed submissions evaluated by the panel in September 2003 for implementation in 2004, stemmed from the conclusions of a series of reports, working groups and a Council of State design policy decision to improve Finnish national competitiveness through the development of design training and research in tandem with the strengthening of ties between industrial design and innovation.
It is recognised in Finland, as in Britain, that industrial design research lacks a research tradition and methodologies and that there is a clear need to rectify this. However, unlike the research initiatives of the AHRB (Arts & Humanities Research Board) in Britain, there is a very specific focus on industrial design. In a country with a small population there is a refreshingly close distance between education, manufacturers and policy makers. However, until now, there has been an element of confusion in Finland between definitions of design as conceived by the Finnish Research Councils for Natural Sciences and Engineering and for Culture and Society. The Academy of Finland’s current aim is to develop design research as “a communicative interaction between designer, production and user” in recognition of the fact that the needs and values of the consumer have become an important aspect of design. The Academy’s concern is also to “clarify and specify the role of visual communication in the design process”. The themes of the Academy’s Research Programme are wideranging and include the interaction of people and technology, cultural research, creative aspects of industrial design, system-level research into product development, new manufacturing technologies, sustainable development and research relating to the management of information flows, the role of ergonomics and usability requirements.
