Royal College of Art x Design for Good Academy to offer places to the public for the first time

• For the first time, the Academy will open 50 places to the public, extending access to the knowledge, tools and community to help educate our next generation of impact-driven designers and changemakers.

• Academics from Stanford University (USA), Royal College of Art (UK), Imperial College London (UK), Hasso Plattner d-school Afrika at The University of Cape Town (South Africa), Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design (Denmark), FLAME University (India) and EPFL (Switzerland), plus UK Design Council, to contribute.

• Curriculum will equip designers with the skills to address complex challenges for people and planet health, related to the UN SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being and SDG: 13 Climate Action.

• Design for Good aims to train 10,000 creatives to create social and environmental impact by 2030.

• Academy participants will have the opportunity to earn an RCA certificate.

London (20 August 2026) – For the first time ever, the Royal College of Art x Design for Good Academy is opening 50 places to designers from the wider creative community, expanding access to world-class education that equips creatives with the skills to design for people and planet health. Participants, being offered a discounted rate, will learn alongside members of the Design for Good Alliance through a first-of-its-kind programme shaped by an extraordinary collaboration between eight leading academics from some of the world's top institutions, helping to educate and inspire the next generation of impact-driven designers and changemakers.

Starting in October 2026 and running until March 2027, six modules will be taught by leading faculty and leaders from the Royal College of Art (RCA), Hasso Plattner d-school Afrika at the University of Cape Town, Imperial College London, Stanford University, Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design (CIID), FLAME University, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL+ECAL Lab) and UK Design Council.

The Academy will operate as a networked model, where each of the academics contribute to modules in a shared curriculum. RCA will act as the academic anchor, designing the overall programme framework and narrative and providing coordination, certification and quality assurance. This structure ensures the RCA x Design for Good Academy learning outcomes remain globally scalable and locally grounded, building a long-term international community of creatives equipped to address interconnected social and environmental challenges.

Topics and speakers to include:

• Principles and Processes of Mission-led Innovation for People and Planet Health, featuring Dr Nick de Leon, Design for Good co-founder, and Cat Drew, chief design officer, UK Design Council

• The Application of Green Design Skills and Co-design Practices, featuring Richard Perez, founding director of the Hasso Plattner d-school Afrika at the University of Cape Town

• Understanding Wicked Problems and Design for Complex Systems, featuring Dr Cristobal Garcia-Herrera, Director of Wicked Labs, Imperial Business School

• Harnessing the Power of Technology for People and Planet, featuring Dr de Leon and Steve Blank, adjunct professor in the Department of Management Science and Engineering, Stanford University

• Harnessing the Power of Nature-inspired Solutions for People and Planet, featuring Simona Maschi, co-founder and director of the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design, and Dr Amit Kundal, associate professor and dean at the School of Design, Art and Performance, FLAME University

• Transforming Concepts into Impactful Propositions, featuring Dr de Leon and Nicolas Henchoz, founding director of the EPFL+ECAL Lab

“Over the past years, Design for Good has brought together a powerful alliance of corporations including Lloyds Banking Group, McKinsey & Company, General Mills, Philips, OpenStudio and Nedbank, committed to designing products and services for the world’s most pressing challenges,” said Design for Good Managing Director Cecilia Brenner. “Now, we are extending that ecosystem by creating an alliance of leading academics from the world’s top universities. By connecting industry expertise with education, we are creating a unique platform where innovation, learning and action come together to accelerate meaningful change at scale.”

Design for Good, a charity mobilising a global alliance to design lasting, measurable impact for the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs), has partnered with the Royal College of Art since 2022 and started the Academy to upskill creatives on how to create social and environmental impact. To date, more than 1,200 individuals have gone through the Academy, with the aim to train 10,000 creatives by 2030 to create social and environmental impact. Design for Good’s focus for the next four years is to address through design SDGs 3: Good Health and Well-being and 13: Climate Action.

“For the fourth consecutive year, RCA Executive Education is proud to lead the RCA x Design for Good Academy cohort,” said Dr Nick de Leon, knowledge exchange and partnerships lead, School of Design, RCA, and Design for Good co-founder. “For cohort four, we are collaborating with top-tier academics and education organisations to build a curriculum that will help participants use their talents to launch high-impact projects for human and planetary health over the next four years.”

The curriculum for each cohort is designed to educate and equip Design for Good Alliance creatives working on programme projects on how to ensure their innovations are life-centred, scalable and impactful. More broadly, and for those not participating on the projects, the modules will provide foundational methods, models and interdisciplinary case studies to equip participants with the tools to design and deliver meaningful, transformative change for people and planet health in their professional practice. In addition to modules, the Academy hosts a simultaneous online Masterclass series that is free for anyone to join. This year’s series will feature two masterclasses: one from OpenStudio on designing with AI and another from the RCA-led Ecological Citizen(s) Network+.

“The RCA x Design for Good Academy offers support for anyone who wants to make a difference to their world,” said Debbie Bowyer, a business support consultant at a Design for Good Alliance member, who earned an RCA certificate after attending the 2025-2026 Academy cohort. “From the position of leadership or simply acting on pure passion, Academy learnings support the formation and implementation of true purposeful change.”

To learn more about the public places, individuals can register interest here until 2 October.

For more information or to set up an interview, email Katie Lee at katie@designforgood.org.