| Dates: January – April 2022 Application Deadline: 5 PM on Friday, November 12, 2021 Design for Regional Resilience targets firms that contribute actively to localized circular economy networks. A circular economy is regenerative by design and aims to gradually decouple growth from the consumption of finite resources. Approaches may include reuse/redistribution; active sharing within partner or customer networks; and rethinking product-service relationships. We invite interested SMEs to fill this Expression of Interest form. The program details can be found below. |
Program Details
- 10 companies will be accepted to the program
- Cost for a company to participate is $2100, with NRC IRAP covering the balance of the total project cost
- Each company will be matched with a designerInterviewing, hiring and administration is taken care of by Emily Carr
- Designers work onsite (or remotely) with your company for 12/hours a week for 12 weeks (January – April 2022)
- Designers are supported by studio sessions with Emily Carr faculty to ensure successful deliverables
- Companies are expected to provide the designer with access to relevant internal and external stakeholders, potentially including existing customers for purposes of user research and testing
Types of SMEs that would benefit from this initiative:
- SMEs whose core services or products mitigate or provide uptake or value added recovery systems and products for local waste
- SMEs that provide innovative services or products that keep materials in use by extending the life of products, or that prioritize renewable and/or regenerative sources of energy and material
- SMEs that source, repurpose, recycle or reuse materials locally for their manufacturing and that produce goods for the local marketSMEs providing city-serving services and products
- SMEs developing and delivering share, reuse, repair models
- SMEs focused on extending the life of materials and products with minimal re-processing
- SMEs focused on fostering local food security and local food waste recovery for local growing/urban agriculture operations
This program will help firms to:
- Deepen engagement with circular economy practices, products or partnerships
- Communicate sustainability metrics and/or contributions to the circular economy through brand storytelling, including data visualization and visual documentation
- Align core products with the needs of target customers using design-led methods of user research and testing
- Assess and adjust existing products and processes toward the goal of meeting sustainability targets, or simplifying user experiences
- Prototype new products
- Map material, energy, or consumption flows within internal or external systems
| What skills do our designers have? These designers are usually completing their 3rd or 4th year of undergraduate studies or first year of graduate studies, with expertise in interaction design, industrial design, service design, and/or communication design, interface and usability, user testing, branding, user research and profiling, ideation and selection, and prototyping. How to Apply To participate, please fill this Expression of Interest form by 5PM on November 12, 2021. This form is also available in Word format. To obtain it in Word please email Jerome.Kashetsky@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca and submit the completed form to both Jerome Kashetsky and cc Kate Armstrong (Director, Living Labs, Emily Carr University of Art + Design) at karmstrong@ecuad.ca Please direct any questions to Jerome Kashetsky (NRC IRAP ITA) at Jerome.Kashetsky@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca |
