IN-PLACE: Connecting Design and Policy for meeting Net-ZERO targets

Our project has been awarded further Impact acceleration funding in order to continue our collaboration with local authorities. With the support of the government Open Innovation team Open Innovation Team – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk), the I-Connect researchers will be developing an impact plan towards an experimental approach to policy making – “Policy Immersion Space”. Our interdisciplinary project explores how we can use participatory design approaches to support innovation in local policymaking to meet the UK’s Net-Zero targets. While the UK achieved significant milestones in design-led innovation through the Policy Lab (based in London), these advances are confined to informing national policy. This excludes local constituencies who do not have access to participatory design methods which are proven to enhance the effectiveness, inclusivity, and sustainability of policy decisions. Additionally, many local constituencies face declining budgets and legacy systems that are at odds with the demands placed on them. The Net-Zero challenge hardly adheres to administrative or geographic boundaries and requires investments in innovative, systemic approaches with long-term planning horizons. We address this problem by piloting the use of an immersive, participatory design approach to inform local policy on sustainable transport in the context of the Eden Morecambe flagship project in England’s North-West.