Call for Papers

Scope and Objectives

Design does not emerge from isolated inventive acts but unfolds through continuous exchange: between theory and practice, research and industrial application, analysis and synthesis, humans and technologies.

Engineering design operates today within a context characterised by increasing complexity, accelerated innovation cycles, societal, technological, industrial, and environmental transitions, as well as pressing global challenges. Recent ICED editions have highlighted how design unfolds in motion, within complex socio-technical systems and under growing ethical and environmental responsibilities. These complex systems are represented by physical products, services, processes, organisations, infrastructures, socio-technical, ethnological, and cultural realities that involve many compromises and interfaces with other systems. ICED27 builds on such a precedent path by framing dialogue as a founding, urgent-to-be-reclaimed principle for contemporary Engineering Design research and practice, academia and industry, as mutually informing domains, whose interaction enables the translation of knowledge into meaningful, responsible, and impactful outcomes.

The conference explicitly invites contributions that explore how dialogue shapes design processes, methods, and outcomes. This includes dialogue between analytical and empirical research, between data-driven and human-centred approaches, between technological innovation or entrepreneurship and social responsibility, as well as between short-term effectiveness and long-term impact.

We particularly encourage work that demonstrates how design research and practice can move beyond conceptual advances to create tangible value for industry, the environment and society. Submissions that demonstrate applications in real-world contexts, describe the returns for the stakeholders involved, or provide guidance for decision-making in industrial business settings will be considered particularly valuable.

Fundamental questions arise for the Engineering Design community. How can Design Research remain rigorous and relevant in global transitions? How can Engineering Design engage in productive dialogue with other domains of knowledge as technological, environmental, and social challenges call for? How can theory and practice inform one another, while responding to the rapidly evolving relationship between humans and technology? And how can designed artefacts, systems, and services move beyond conceptual proposals to become both sustainable and impactful outcomes?

Fundamental questions arise for the Engineering Design community. How can Design Research remain rigorous and relevant in global transitions? How can Engineering Design engage in productive dialogue with other domains of knowledge as technological, environmental, and social challenges call for? How can theory and practice inform one another, while responding to the rapidly evolving relationship between humans and technology? And how can designed artefacts, systems, and services move beyond conceptual proposals to become both sustainable and impactful outcomes?

ICED27 seeks to provide a locus where these questions can be addressed through dialogue between researchers and practitioners, established scholars and early-career researchers, and academic and industrial communities. By fostering such exchanges, the conference aims to advance Engineering Design as a discipline that not only generates knowledge, but also actively contributes to shaping a responsible and impactful future.

Topics of Interest

• Design for Impact, governing accelerated innovation through responsible, sustainable, ethical design
• Design for Humanity, matching technological progress and pervasiveness with health, wellbeing and inclusion, culture and societal challenges
• Design Creativity, navigating contemporary contradictory requirements and enabling creative dialogue with intelligent systems
• Systems Design and Engineering: enabling short-term effectiveness while supporting long-term impact
• Design for Advanced Manufacturing: aligning technological performance with legacy constraints, circular and sustainable objectives, investment decisions
• AI and Agentic Design, ML and Data-Driven Design, human-centred Design, mediating between intelligent systems and human agency
• Human Behaviour and Cognition: facilitating the cognitive transition for users and for designers of systems
• Advanced Collaborative Design: aiding coordinated, participatory, and dialogic interactions between humans, models, and intelligent systems
• Design Management and Processes: organising, planning, and optimising efficient, flexible, multidisciplinary design processes
• Design Theory, Methods and Tools: articulating relationships, tensions, and mutual influence in a transiting world
• Translational Design Research: bridging academic research and industrial practice
• Design Education: integrating knowledge, skills, and values in engineering design

The conference will include plenary, podium and discussion sessions. Following a double-blind peer review, papers will be allocated to appropriate sessions. All accepted papers will be included in the conference proceedings published Open Access by Cambridge University Press. Papers will be published as part of the Proceedings of the Design Society have a DOI number and are indexed on SCOPUS.

The conference will also include a ‘Marketplace’ which will give the opportunity to demonstrate current research activity. A paper is not required for this, participation details will be provided here.

Important Dates

Online Submission Will Open: August 1, 2026
Full Paper Submission Deadline: December 7, 2026
Registration Will Open: February 1, 2027
Notification of Full Paper Acceptance: February 15, 2027
Submission of Camera-Ready Papers: March 5, 2027
Early Bird Registration End / Author Registration Deadline: April 9, 2027
Conference: August 16–20, 2027