The forum, titled Measuring the Impact of Design, was held on March 14 as part of a process to examine ¡°what sort of university research will generate the best results for economic renewal and repay the investment from the taxpayer¡±.

Sir Adrian Smith, director general for knowledge and innovation at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, said design had featured strongly in the government¡¯s recent Innovation and Research Strategy for Growth.

This had also included a commitment that ¡°the Design Council and Arts and Humanities Research Council work together on a programme of university-led research, to provide a more sophisticated understanding of the use and value of design¡±.

Such work, Sir Adrian argued, should help us ¡°better understand the impact of investing in design¡± and ¡°drive up demand for design in areas where traditionally there is low awareness and take-up¡±, while also providing the hard numerical evidence ¡°to start informing the next Comprehensive Spending Review¡±.

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James Moultrie, senior lecturer in design management at the University of Cambridge, described the development of an international design scoreboard to compare different national capabilities.

A series of case studies offered striking examples of the impact of good design: in increasing sales of consumer products such as soft drinks; ¡°enhancing the healing environment¡± in hospitals for patients with dementia; and using architecture to promote sustainability and well-being.

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This led into a debate on ¡°whether better evidence on the impact of design will drive up demand¡±.

Former government economic adviser Vicky Pryce, who now works for FTI Consulting, argued that such evidence ¡°would lead to more interest from business and the policy world¡±.

It might spur the government, for example, to pay far more attention to design issues in the National Health Service, to look again at what counts as ¡°research and development¡± for the purposes of tax relief, and to take urgent action to support design education, she added.

matthew.reisz@tsleducation.com