PhD Supervision Interests

Design Design Management Design PolicyUrban Sustainability Design and WellbeingDesign and HealthDesign Against Crime Socially Responsible Design Design & Manufacture

Research Interests

Rachel Cooper is Professor of Design Management at the University of Lancaster, where she is Chair of Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts and also ImaginationLancaster (a centre for research into products, places and systems for the future). Her research interests cover design management, design policy, new product development, design in the built environment, design against crime, and socially responsible design. Projects includes: EPSRC (i) A Study of Requirements Capture; (ii) Cost and Benefits of Partnering iii) Generic Design & Construction Process Protocol - a five year study involving numerous industrial collaborators e.g. BAA, Alfred McAlpine, BT, (iv) Future scenarios for Distributed Design Teams; (v) three projects for the Design Council/Home Office on Design Against Crime; (iv) also for the Design Council and government, a study of the use of Design in Government Departments e.g. DTI, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and DCMS.

Between 2003 and 2008 she led 'Vivacity 2020: Sustainable Urban Design for the 24 Hour City', a £3m EPSRC funded project over five years looking at Manchester, London, and Sheffield - http://www.vivacity2020.eu. She was co-investigator upon the AHRC/EPSRC funded 'Design 2020: The UK Design Industry in 2020' which was completed in 2008 - http://www.ukdesign2020.org and  co-investigator of 'Urban Futures', a five year EPSRC funded research project http://www.urban-futures.org. Professor Cooper is currently co-investigator of EPSRC Programme grant Liveable Cites http://www.liveablecities.org.uk and also an AHRC Knowledge Exhchange Hub, The Creative Exchange, focussing of the 'Digital Public Space'  http://www.thecreativexchange.org.

She has authored several books in the field including The Design Agenda (1995), The Design Experience (2003), Designing Sustainable cities (2009), Constructing Futures (2010)  The Handbook of Design Management (2011) and is currently commissioning editor for an Ashgate series on Socially Responsible Design. She was commissioned in May 2007 by the Foresight programme on Mental Wellbeing and Mental Capital to write the Scientific Review on Mental Wellbeing and the Built Environment. Professor Cooper is President of the European Academy of Design, and Editor of The Design Journal.

Professor Cooper has undertaken several advisory roles to national and international universities, government and non-governmental organisations. She was a member of Infrastructure and Environment Strategic Advisory Team of the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) until 2005. She has also chaired EPSRC commissioning panels on Crime and the cross council review of UK National Collaboration on Ageing Research programme and she was mentor on EPSRC Sandpits on Mobile Health and Countering Terrorism in 2006/7. Professor Cooper was UK Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) panel convenor for visual arts and media practice, history, theory Postgraduate awards between 2000 & 2005, and sat on the Council of the AHRC (2000/10). She was also a member of the advisory panel on the AHRC/ESRC's Cultures of Consumption programme and chairs the advisory panel for the AHRC/EPSRC's 'Designing for the 21st Century' initiative. She was a member of the UK Research Assessment Exercise Paanel for Art and Design in 2008, chaired the research review panel for art, design architecture and media for Alto University, (2009) and was a member of the Research Assessment exercise for Gothenburg University 2010. In 2011 she was invited to be a member of the European Design Innovation Initiative Leadership Board that produced recommendations on Design for Prosperity and Growth for the EU.

Additional Information

The Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts (LICA) has appointed its first director

Professor Rachel Cooper took up her new post at Lancaster University on July 1, 2006.

Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts (LICA), based in Lancaster University's faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, is a new interdisciplinary centre which brings together Art, Music and Theatre Studies to form a new institute focusing on the Contemporary Arts. The institute also incorporates public arts provision at Lancaster - the Peter Scott Gallery, Nuffield Theatre and Lancaster International Concerts.

Professor Cooper, who has held her post at Salford for 15 years, said she was looking forward to the opportunity to develop a centre which was still in its infancy.

"Creativity has an important role part to play in the modern world in terms of innovation, development and research. This is an exciting opportunity to lead the LICA, to bring together Art, Music and Theatre Studies as well as developing a team of researchers in Design.

"I particularly welcome the opportunity to develop interdisciplinary research, not only between the subjects within LICA but also between LICA and other Lancaster University centres such as the Lancaster Environment Centre, the Management School and InfoLab21 - Lancaster University's centre of excellence for Information Communication Technology."

• Lancaster University invests £2.5m in Imagination@Lancaster

  12/10/2007
  Lancaster University has invested in a major new creative research lab which will drive interdisciplinary research to exploreplaces, products and systems for the future The £2.5m Laboratory c ... Read more»

• NEW PERSPECTIVES FROM THE BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCES FOR GOVERNMENT POLICY MAKING

  Rachel Cooper (Member) 13/6/2012
  Activity: Contribution to the work of national or international committees and working groups
  Read more»

• RCUK/TSB IoT Roadmapping workshop

  Rachel Cooper (Host) 1/1/2012 → 30/9/2012
  Activity: Contribution to the work of national or international committees and working groups
  Read more»