DfA Acanet is an Academic Network set up by the university MOs of EIDD-DfA Europe.
Its mission is to encourage reciprocal knowledge and partnership between its members, so as to identify opportunities for research in partnership and to promote the culture of innovation and of competitiveness through DfA by extending it into the educational structures of Europe’s universities and their applications.
DfA Acanet promotes concrete design processes and actions that comply with the DfA approach, including, but not only, in the geographical areas where EIDD’s individual academic members operate, as they often enjoy favourable conditions in their relations with other institutions operating in the same geographical areas, such as local communities, public administrations, training and research bodies, government authorities and consortia.

 

Giuseppe Di Bucchianico, PhD.

Department of Engineering and Geology, University of Chieti – Pescara

pepetto@unich.it
tel: +39 085 4537339

 

Claudia Porfirione, PhD.

Department of Architecture and Design, University of Genova

claudia.porfirione@unige.it
tel: +39 010 209 5951
mob: +39 346 6938645

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• Aalborg University
• ABC, Politecnico di Milano
• AOH, Institute of Design
• ASP Katowice
• Brunel University London
• CEDA, University of Bratislava
• Cité du Design
• d.school Paris
• DAD, University of Genoa
• Hasselt University
• Mid Sweden University
• Poznan University of Life Sciences
• QUT_Queensland University of Technology, School of Design
• Royal College of Art
• Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Schools of Architecture, Design and Conservation
• Thomas More University of Applied Sciences, Interior, Design & Architecture Unit
• University of Antwerp, Faculty of Design Sciences
• University of Chieti-Pescara
• University of Guadalahara
• University of Jaen
• University of Rijeka
• University of Portland

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• Aalborg University
• ABC, Politecnico di Milano
• AOH, Institute of Design
• ASP Katowice
• Brunel University London
• CEDA, University of Bratislava
• Cité du Design
• d.school Paris
• DAD, University of Genoa
• Hasselt University
• Mid Sweden University
• Poznan University of Life Sciences
• QUT_Queensland University of Technology, School of Design
• Royal College of Art
• Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Schools of Architecture, Design and Conservation
• University of Chieti-Pescara
• University of Guadalahara
• University of Jaen
• University of Rijeka

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DfA Acanet is an Academic Network set up by the universities and graduate schools that are Member Organizations of EIDD-DfA Europe.

Its mission is to encourage reciprocal knowledge and partnership between its members, so as to identify opportunities for research in partnership and to promote the culture of innovation and of competitiveness through DfA by extending it into the educational structures of Europe’s universities and their applications.

DfA Acanet promotes concrete design processes and actions complying with the DfA approach, mostly in the geographical areas where EIDD’s individual academic members operate, also considering the usual favour conditions in their relations with other institutions, such as local communities, public administrations, training and research bodies, government authorities and consortia.

DfA Acanet therefore has three basic objectives, which can be summarised as operating in the areas of training, of research and of academic dissemination:

Training and promotion

• Promoting DfA as a factor for improving local economies’ competitive vigour and setting them free of their traditional limitations, in partnership with local authorities, associations and institutions, so as to use the universities as launchpads for disseminating a culture of process, product and context innovation for social ’inclusion social, diversity and equality;
• Stimulating and organising partnership activities in the area of education and training, such as multilateral exchanges for organising and executing courses, workshops, seminars and traineeships in the area of DfA.

Research

• Initiating research opportunities by working with authorities, associations and institutions;
• Actively and pro-actively seeking public and private finding opportunities for targeted research and other activities with regard to DfA;
• Conducting joint research and analysis activities aimed at identifying, defining and applying original disciplinary tools and methodologies;
• Contributing to defining and implementing innovative methodologies and practices for researching and practising DfA, as well as to generating critical thinking about the application of the DfA approach to designing places, products and systems;
• Practising forms of consultancy and partnership to offer its specialised skills as a network of university research units to generate innovative DfA processes for individual enterprises or systems of enterprises, local production systems, public authorities and private bodies.

Academic dissemination and communication

• Promoting national and international events and opportunities for exchange and debate about the DfA approach (conferences, lectures, competitions, university and postgraduate training courses), in relation to its network of competences and of interdisciplinary relations;
• Launching and editing an academic journal to host the publication and dissemination of critical thinking, theoretical discussion and examples of good practices inherent to the DfA approach.

DfA Acanet’s multidisciplinary dimension

The DfA approach calls for the active involvement of decision-makers (politics, administratives, corporate leaders), designers, professionals and users in all the design process steps.
This multiplicity of actors comes from different training backgrounds that goes well beyond those familiar to the disciplines of design: not only industrial design, architecture, town and country planning etc., but also economics, law etc.

As a consequence, it is vital that DfA Acanet’s structure will be based on multidisciplinary representation from the very start. It is to be hoped that DfA Acanet includes academic members from a wide range of disciplinary backgrounds.

How to join us

In order to join DfA Acanet, each Academic Member Organization of EIDD-DfA Europe (University, Graduate School, etc.) can fill the “DfA Acanet data collection form” and send it to the responsible of DfA Acanet: it allows the academic members to know each other’s organizations, skills, specific areas of teaching and research in which they are involved.