Here, for reference, is parts of the original NordPlus application (cut/pasted) through which we received our first year of mobility funding. Please note that we only received funding for staff mobility during 2016-17 and that the other proposed activities were not funded this year.
NPHE-2016/10141 Page 1 (10) Draft – 29-Feb-2016
Nordplus Higher Education 2016
Application
1.Start – Basic information
Name on network The Nordic Network of Interaction and Service Design
1.2. Name on project
The Nordic Network of Interaction and Service Design/2016
Project ID NPHE-2016/10141
2.Institutions – Registration of institutions Nordplus Higher Education
2.1.Coordinator institution Coordinator institution
2.1.1. Registration of coordinating institution
Aalto University (FI)
Type of institution: University
2.1.2. Unit
Unit at coordinator institution: Department of Media
2.1.3. Legal representative
Name: Valtonen, Anna
E-mail: anna.valtonen(at)aalto.fi
2.1.4. Contact person
Name: Dean, Philip
E-mail: philip.dean(at)aalto.fi
Address: PO Box 16500
FI-00076 AALTO
Finland
2.2.Partner institutions Partner institutions
Institution: IS-Iceland Academy of the Arts (IS)
Type of institution: University
Contact person: Eyjólfsson, Garðar
E-mail: gardareyjolfsson(at)lhi.is
Institution: NO-The Oslo School of Architecture and Design (NO-AHO)
Type of institution: University
Unit: Institute of Design (IDE) / Institutt for Design
Contact person: Sneve Martinussen, Einar
E-mail: einar(at)voyoslo.com
Institution: SE-Umeå University (SE)
Type of institution: University
Unit: Umeå Institute of Design
Contact person: Andersson, Niklas G
E-mail: niklas.g.andersson(at)dh.umu.se
Institution: DK-Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design (DK-CIID)
Type of institution: Private Enterprise
Contact person: Koch, Marie
E-mail: m.koch(at)ciid.dk
3.General information – General information and summary
3.2. Type of project
What type of activities shall you apply for:
Development projects
Intensive courses
Mobility
Subject area Other humanities (114)
3.3. Summary
Summary (max 250 words)
The Nordic Interaction Education and Service Design Network includes 5 partners from the Nordic
countries.
The purpose of the network is to increase Nordic collaboration and develop contemporary approaches to
higher education in the specialist, inter-disciplinary fields of Interaction and Service Design.
The goal of the network is to develop an interconnected culture across Nordic design education in this
age of rapid change in which we see ICT and digital artefacts as material for the crafting experiences
and interactions. NNISD will link existing curricula and expertise across institutions and draw inspiration
from the region’s shared heritage in design and craft.
The network’s other goals include:
· Sharing and documenting how interaction design is taught in Nordic Countries to seek for a common
language to share and develop experiences and disseminate innovative educational practices and
processes
· Identifying and co-developing best practices within the higher education in this overtly multi-disciplinary
field
· Championing a new paradigm for Nordic Craft: Empowering talent and encouraging entrepreneurship
through concentration on design craft in digital technologies, systems, products and culture.
· Delivering intense courses via a Summer School that focuses on the aspects of design and craft
inherent in successful interaction- and service design practice
· Improving mobility of teachers and students in the Nordic Network
· Contributing to the excellence and reputation of Nordic design as embodied in the region’s interactive
systems, products and digital culture via collaborative development of education in close collaboration
with industry
· Planning future conferences and seminars and extending the network over time, especially in the Baltic
states
4.Activity
4.1.Intensive course Apply for support to Intensive course
4.1. Intensive course
Name of Intensive course: NNISD Summer School
What: Intensive course
Level: Master
Country that host the intensive course: Denmark
Participating countries: Denmark
Finland
Iceland
Norway
Sweden
Number of students:: 20
Number of teachers:: 7
Number of ECTS: 5
Duration in days: 12
1. Relevance, objectives and innovation (max 4000 characters):
The Nordic Network for Interaction and Service Design Summer School 2017 will
be the first gathering of the network’s students, occurring at the end of the network’s
first year of operation. The Summer School will be undertaken as a non-compulsory
(elective course) for max. 4 students per network partner. The Summer School will
concentrate specifically with the network’s notion of new paradigms for Nordic craft
and Design. Students will be set collaborative tasks in which they are expected to
reflect on their own experiences in interaction and service design and, drawing on
their knowledge and experiences from their earlier careers and education and guided
by teachers and tutors from member institutions, will be expected to develop an
interactive publication and related exhibition/demonstration; a manifesto for The New
Nordic Craft.
The subject will be initially prepared by the network’s teacher participants and
introduced to students in academic year 2016-17 as part of their general studies.
We aim to initiate a critical consideration of habitual practices in the field and set
challenges for development, the creation of new services, products and cultural
productions in which the approach is more akin to achieving ‘magical’ and ‘poetic’
experiences rather than workable utilitarian products whose primary functions are
based on hierarchies and, for example, humiliating search functions. Students will
be asked to apply for the limited places at the Summer School and best efforts will
be used in order to gain sufficient support from industrial and partners and partner
organisations.
When information technology and its related digital artefacts are understood as the
basic material for design practices, opportunities for deep considerations of craft
arise. When the task is to improve the lives of people it is possible to reflect on our
current situation in the development of an information society, against the history
of design and craft in our Nordic context. It is often proposed that Nordic design
originated from the climatic and various geographic realities of the region and an
understanding of how human creativity (basic human innovation) could provide better
living conditions and increase the chance of survival and longevity. We will reflect
on this notion and draw links to our current situation where the basics of our digital
design are rarely seen as basic survival. Growing criticism and uncertainty regarding
the future of our digital societies, especially the shifting of power and control via
globalisation and de-centralisation of governance, give good reason to consider how
design craft, in our modern context, could provide superior solutions for people forced
to live via human-computer interfaces in most important aspects of life management
and, increasingly, culture.
The Summer School’s outcome – New Nordic Craft manifesto and related design
productions – shall be created as interactive media and/or physical working
prototypes. Students will be given the chance to continue working on the theme of
the Summer School during the next academic year, when appropriate and possible.
The manifesto will also provide a strategic link to the activities of NNISD during the
next years of its operation and it is hoped that some of the Summer School students
will apply for mobility funding within the network in academic year 2017-18 having
gained good insight via the Summer School into the programs offered by the partner
institutions.
2. Organization and implementation (max 4000 characters):
The NNISD Summer School will be an experimental course offered as an elective
by the partner institutions from which the chosen students will gain 5 ECTS for their
successful completion. Each institution will be responsible for arranging a competitive
selection process in order to ensure enrolment of max. 4 students per partner
institution.
The Summer School will be planned as a collaboration of leading Professors and
other teachers from all NNISD partners. The academic staff chosen to teach and
run the Summer School will have complementary expertise resulting in a broad
knowledge base supporting the students’ work. CIID Denmark, as the host institution,
will be mainly responsible for logistical arrangements relating to the course and in
locating suitable accommodation for the visiting students.
Pedagogically the Summer school will employ a Design-based research method in
tackling the tasks set towards creating a modern Nordic Design Manifesto. Initially
the problems will be defined through a collaborative process involving student peers,
academic staff and visiting experts from the field. An iterative development process
will then allow students, in groups, to work together in concept development and
realisation of the ideas, utilising both real-world examples of their choosing and their
own creations. At the end of the first week a group session will be organised in order
to reflect on the work done so far and to lay plans for the remaining period. At this
point there may be changes in the working group structure and the aim will be to
gain a general consensus on the contents and scope of the Design Manifesto to
be produced. Working in larger groups, with specific tasks, the students, aided by
all the teaching staff, will work in production tasks that culminate in the final day’s
presentations and demonstrations, including working prototypes constructed in a
FabLab. This will be followed by a session of reflection and critique on the 2 weeks’
Summer School activities its results.
Throughout the Summer School students will also take part in supporting lectures
given by teaching staff and external experts. These lectures are planned to support
the students’ learning in respect of Nordic design and society, as well as the changing
role of design in broader global contexts. Additionally some industrial and cultural
visits will be arranged in and around Copenhagen in order that students become
more familiar with the best examples of modern Danish design, especially in the
realm of interaction and service design.
Students will be required to write a learning diary during the length of the Summer
School and they will be instructed at the beginning of the School as to how their
learning diary documentation needs to be made. Students’ final evaluation for the
Summer School will involve both an assessment of their work in collaboration with
others over the 2 week period, as well as a critical assessment of their learning diary.
An evaluation of the Summer School operation in general will be made as an online
published report of the NNISD network in early Autumn 2017. The report will be
written and edited by the Summer School teaching staff aided by selected students.
The report will serve as a milestone in the network’s activities leading into its 2nd
year of operations during academic year 2017-18.
3. Dissemination (max 4000 characters):
The first NNISD Summer School will result in a design manifesto conceived
collaboratively as the work of students and their teachers. The manifesto is hoped
to be a significant milestone in the development of the NNISD as it enters its second
year. Students from each institution involved in the Summer School will be expected
to present the results of the Summer School to their peers on returning to their
studies in Autumn term 2017. The significance of the Summer School results are as a
new point of view when considering Nordic design and the continuum of Nordic craft
traditions. Therefore the initial impact of the work are to be initially expected to be
found within art and design education and research contexts.
It is hoped that the NNISD Summer School will provide hardy seeds for the growth
of a craft-oriented perspective on modern digital design. As stated earlier in this
proposal, growing criticism and uncertainty regarding the future of our digital
societies, especially the shifting of power and control via globalisation and decentralisation
of governance, give good reason to consider how design craft, in
our modern context, could provide superior solutions for people forced to live via
human-computer interfaces in most important aspects of life management and,
increasingly, culture. Whilst ‘Design’ has already found its representatives in the
board rooms of some large corporations and as companies search for new tools,
like ‘design-thinking’, to help forge new business strategies it is nevertheless still a
great challenge to talk about the practice of design in an honest way if the critical
aspects of craft are not made visible. As experts of the field, albeit from within
multi-disciplinary contexts, we experience design as a multi-faceted field and we
wish to prevent its reduction to notions of processes and systems. As Design
becomes part of the political arena and the industrial complex there is a fear that
some of the essential elements of design and design practice are deemed to have
less importance than in the past. The intention of the NNISD is to illuminate the
craft aspects of modern design and to promote this as part of considerations of
contemporary design and, especially, within art education, design education and
design research.
The current member institutions of the NNISD are leading institutions in Nordic higher
education and share ample potential for effective dissemination of the network’s
results within the Nordic/Baltic region and globally.
4. Renewal applications (max 4000 characters):
Planned expences:
EUR – Euro Support from
Nordplus Sum
Activity
Organisational support 3 000
Travel expenses 7 500
Board and lodging 18 690
Domestic travel, board and lodging
SUM – Activity 29 190
4.2. Download detailed budget for Intensive course
4.3.Development projects Apply for support to Development project
4.3. Development project
Name of development
project: Model development of education
What: Development project
All institutions participate
Participating country: Denmark
Finland
Iceland
Norway
Sweden
Participating institutions:
1. Relevance, objectives and innovation (max 4000 characters):
The Nordic Network of Interaction and Service Design, NNISD is a network of
interaction and service design programs in the Nordic countries, comprising
5 renowned higher educational institutions. Our purpose is to increase Nordic
collaboration and develop contemporary approaches to higher education in the
specialist, inter-disciplinary fields of Interaction and Service Design. In a meeting
of the project consortium at CIID, Copenhagen on October 8-9th, 2015, funded
by NordFo, NordPlus, discussions and negotiations resulted in agreement on the
themes and focus of future joint efforts of the partners. The network’s general aims
and objectives are listed in the project summary.
The partners, whilst having deep understanding and experience modern design
practice, design education and design research globally, concluded that the Nordic
region’s design traditions result in our sharing of specific values of design craft and
its application that are yet relatively unexplored and unexploited within the fields of
modern-day digital design practice.
Many protocols, tools and systems designed in dialogue with others and shared
democratically by Nordic pioneers, from Peter Naur to Linus Torvalds, form a
basis for a digital world which does not have to be dominated and controlled by
corporations or single nation states. NNISD aims to champion a new paradigm
for Nordic Craft; empowering talent and encouraging entrepreneurship through
concentration on design craft in digital technologies, systems, products and culture.
Across the Nordic region digital, networked technologies are increasingly important
across industry, culture and society. Through their education of future-oriented design
professionals the NNISD institutions collectively address how to meet, challenge and
deal with the needs of society and individual citizens in the meeting point between
new technologies, people and culture. The network aims to share similarities and
differences in design education through developing a Nordic arena for mobility,
curriculum development, lectures and seminars/conferences.
At the founding meeting one of the main foci of NNISD emerged as the development
of the Nordic field of Interaction and Service Design in the context of the Nordic
society, culture and industry based on design and craft traditions and their future
development. Interaction and Service Design are relatively small, but rapidly growing
fields in Nordic design education and related research. The purpose of creating
the network is to strengthen the field by way of sharing common knowledge and
experiences together, by students, as well as faculty. The goal of the network is to
develop an interconnected culture across Nordic design education in this age of
rapid change in which we see ICT and digital artefacts as material for the crafting
experiences and interactions. NNISD will link existing curricula and expertise across
institutions and draw inspiration from the region’s shared heritage in design and craft.
There is great potential for innovation at the intersection between technology, design
and culture, as exemplified by recent developments such as social- and participatory
media, digital governance, connected products and the development of public and
private services. Design is central to how these areas can be developed for people
and citizens in inclusive, socially responsible and aesthetic ways. We argue that the
values and perspectives traditionally found across the Nordic societies and in Nordic
design practice and education can offer valuable contributions to how technological
systems and services are developed and conceptualised both in the Nordic countries
and globally. Through NNISD, we suggest that by building on these traditions, the
Nordic Interaction and Service-design education are well positioned to develop both
alternative perspectives and innovations across technology and society.
2. Organization and implementation (max 4000 characters):
The purpose of this development project is to increase Nordic collaboration and
develop contemporary approaches to higher education in the specialist, interdisciplinary
fields of Interaction and Service Design i.e. Curriculum development
actions. In this DP efforts concentrate on strengthening the field through development
based on sharing knowledge and experiences by faculty members.
2x 2-working day Nordic workshops will be organised during year 1 of the project,
attended by teaching staff of all NNISD members; 2 persons per institution. NNISD
will also record and share expert lectures for free and open exploitation by all
member programs.
Workshop 1 – Autumn term 2016: Aims to allow for in-depth presentation of current
curricula as well as discussion of the successes, challenges and development
potential experienced by each institution. Day 1 – Members present their curricula
and context in detail. Presentations include examples of students’ work which are
exemplary of the design excellence sought by each program.
On day 2 of the workshop a local alumnus from the host institution will present
personal work and views on the education s/he received as a presentation. Group
work will then result in a subject matrix mapping institutions’ expertise. Taking into
account the network’s emphasis on design and craft, areas for co-development will
be identified. By the end of day 2, each institution will have 1-2 shared educational
development areas defined, related to the core considerations of design and craft,
well articulated and laid open for further development.
Interim period: The development area groups will work on the defined development
areas, also involving their colleagues in their home institutions and any possible
external partners etc. The expected effort in the interim period is approx. 1 – 1.5 days
per month, per active individual, per development area. The result of this interim
work is a set of concepts for development of education in all the relevant partner
institutions which can include any activity deemed feasible and relevant for the
subjects in question.
Workshop 2 – Early Spring term 2017: Presentation of concepts and plans. On day
1 presentation of work done during the interim period, identifying the main concepts
of jointly developed courses and learning activities etc. Partners give feedback and
suggest further development possibilities or potential learning resources and/or
partners for each concept presented.
On day 2 of the workshop a local alumnus presents her work and reflects on her
education. After this concrete plans will be made for the implementation of the
curricula concepts developed earlier, including course contents, learning objectives,
forms of education, definition of background literature and/or cultural contexts plus
related budgets. The joint development intentions will be written into the plan for
year 2 of the network’s operations to be submitted for funding consideration in March
2017.
Shared on-line lectures – starting Autumn term 2016: According to mutual agreement
NNISD members will utilize their existing resources in the recording and sharing of
lectures given as part of their educational programs. The aim is to provide access to
expert lectures which can be incorporated into the curricula of all partners. Special
emphasis is given to dissemination of lectures given by visiting guests from industry,
external institutions etc. including international visitors. When necessary this activity
will be subject to written agreements with the lecturers detailing related recording and
distribution rights.
The management of the DP occurs via the coordinating partner, Aalto University, who
are responsible for communications, reporting and quality assurance of the network.
Otherwise the network operates according to equal rights principles and promotes
openness, accessibility and non-protective practices.
3. Dissemination and utilization of results (max 4000 characters):
The intention of this DP in year one of the NNISD network is to achieve joint
curriculum development that can be directly implemented at the partner institutions
in following years within their design education in the fields of interaction design
and service design. The scope of the implementation will depend on the number of
partners involved in each development action as well as on necessary funding and
availability of other resources.
Once the new education is implemented and initially evaluated it is the intention of
the NNISD network to,
1) seek to extend the network within the Nordic/Baltic regions and,
2) to seek further collaborations with other relevant international networks, for
example, with Cumulus Association’s Digital Culture network and the Interface
Cultures network (related to Ars Electronica festival).
Each of the partner institutions of NNISD is also committed to the development of
higher education in the field within their own countries and, as leading institutions
within the field, contribute generally to curriculum development and educational
evaluation exercises.
4. Renewal applications (max 4000 characters):
Budget:
EUR – Euro Support from Nordplus
Own contribution Sum Activity
Travel expenses 4 000 0 4 000
Board and lodging 5 120 0 5 120
Work hours (only own contribution) 20 283 20 283
Other costs (specify below) 450 450
SUM – Activity 9 570 20 283 29 853
SUM – Total 9 570 20 283 29 853
Degree of self-financing: 68%
Ev. comments to the budget. Specify other costs.:
Other costs = administrative coordination costs
4.5.Mobility Support for Mobility
4.5.1.General description
The Nordic Network for Interaction and Service Design (NNISD) aims to increase student and staff
mobility over the period 2016-2019, as joint curricula are developed, approved and implemented. During
the first year of the network’s strategic efforts mobility is limited to teacher mobility efforts. We recognise
the value of short-term academic staff visits between institutions which allow for familiarisation with
course delivery and deepening of collaborations through gaining familiarity with academic staff sharing
similar or complementary interests and fields of expertise. Additionally it is common in this field of
design that programs include one or two special presentation days, or Demodays, each academic year.
Attendance at these events give great possibility to experience the work of a particular study program
hands-on, also with the possibility to meet with the majority of staff and students of the program.
For the first year of the network’s operation we propose that one teacher representative of each member
institution will attend a Media Lab Helsinki DemoDay in either December 2016 or May 2017. Other
mobility grants are designed to allow for maximising knowledge transfer between NNISD members.
The staff mobility activities of year one of the NNISD network will be administered by heads of program
in each partner institution and coordinated by the NNISD coordinator. The mobility is expected to give a
significant boost to the level of understanding between the partner institutions which will help lay the way
for the future development of the network.
4.5.4.Teacher mobility Teacher mobility
Type of mobility From country To country Number of teachers Duration (average) each teacher Total grant
Teaching Denmark (DK) Finland (FI) 2 0m, 1w, 0d 1370
Teaching Denmark (DK) Iceland (IS) 1 0m, 1w, 0d 1015
Teaching Finland (FI) Iceland (IS) 2 0m, 2w, 0d 2740
Teaching Finland (FI) Norway (NO) 1 0m, 1w, 0d 685
Teaching Iceland (IS) Finland (FI) 1 0m, 1w, 0d 1015
Teaching Iceland (IS) Sweden (SE) 1 0m, 1w, 0d 1015
Teaching Norway (NO) Finland (FI) 1 0m, 1w, 0d 685
Teaching Norway (NO) Iceland (IS) 1 0m, 1w, 0d 1015
Teaching Sweden (SE) Finland (FI) 1 0m, 1w, 0d 685
Teaching Sweden (SE) Norway (NO) 1 0m, 1w, 0d 685
Total 12 0m, 14w, 0d 10910
5.Budget
EUR – Euro Support from
Nordplus Own contribution Sum
Mobility
Teacher mobility 10 910 0 10 910
SUM – Mobility 10 910 0 10 910
Project activity
Intensive course – NNISD Summer School 29 190 0 29 190
Development prosject – Model development of education 9 570 20 283 29 853
SUM – Project activity 38 760 20 283 59 043
SUM – Total 49 670 20 283 69 953