This paper examines different types of value created by design research in the UK. Given the significant economic, social and environmental challenges we currently face, funding bodies and governments are increasingly concerned with assessing the value and impact of design research. The value generated by design research is not always clearly articulated by the academic community and understood by the public. With this in mind, this paper examines a sample of 67 projects that traverse conceptual, disciplinary and methodological boundaries representing the spread of contemporary design research in the UK. The paper presents an innovative 4-leaf value model that integrates different

This paper presents a novel conceptual framework for assessing design research projects. Present-day design research is typified by projects, which traverse disciplinary, methodological, and conceptual boundaries that often have wideranging social, cultural, and economic impact to industry, government bodies, and the wider public. Given design's application in addressing serious issues ranging from antimicrobial resistance to mobility, from ageing to migration it can be difficult to understand and unpick the exact nature and scale of design research and the roles that design researchers and designing (both processes and outcomes) play. The design research conceptual framework has been developed as a communicative tool for illustrating levels of design involvement in a project. The paper highlights the design input involved in current design research and provides a comparative measure of design's role in a wide range of projects that fall under the umbrella term of "design research" in the UK.

This paper explores the opportunities, challenges and needs of the next generation of design researchers (NGDRs) in the United Kingdom. As part of the first author's ongoing Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Design Leadership Fellowship, the paper reports on a series of ten NGDR workshops held across the UK, which explored the processes involved in developing, writing, and applying for an AHRC grant. The paper presents feedback from the NGDR workshop participants, who contributed to furthering our understanding of what research areas they are interested in investigating, what research-related issues they need support with, and what research opportunities they envisage for the future. Over 800 next generation design researchers attended the NGDR workshops across the UK. This paper reports on feedback from almost 200 NGDR workshop participants who articulate the highly collaborative, innovative and impactful design research they wish to undertake in the future.