Language

Italian, English

Start date

December 2024

Frequency

Full time

Duration

3 Years

Credits

180

The PhD is aimed at researchers who want to deal with the complexity of ongoing transitions to design positive changes and imagine more equitable, supportive and sustainable futures starting from a post disciplinary perspective, open to hybridizations between knowledge and the experimentation of new and unexpected connections.

The PhD programme aims to investigate new interpretative paradigms of Design and the Arts, and their roles, in a fluid, rapidly evolving context, through the experimentation of systemic research methodologies, based on multiple connections and hybridizations, the sublimation of linear disciplinary approaches, in favour of relational and critical, abductive and transdisciplinary readings, which look not only at applications, but also at the implications and impacts of design and creative action.

In this scenario, Design and Art stand as a transformative platform capable of enabling the interconnection between different forms of knowledge, the relationships between different forms of intelligence (human, non-human, other-than-human) and multiple application possibilities, generated by the intersection between design, art, technologies, sciences (human, social, environmental, economic), in a reference value framework based on principles of equity, inclusiveness, responsibility, sustainability and solidarity.

An open and collaborative research environment, an ecosystem in which experiment new hybrid, generative and regenerative methodologies, and apply emerging technologies consciously and responsibly, with a critical, ethical and non-conformist outlook, to go beyond conventional approaches and orient research action towards the common good, care for the planet and shared resources.

The research fields concern the following thematic areas:

  • Collective intelligence and Human - non human creativity
  • Design, Arts and the creative industries in new socio-economic circular environments
  • Cultural Heritage through digital and phygital technologies
  • Smart technologies and bio-materials: unconventional and circular application
  • Data design and information ecology: awareness and knowledge
  • Decolonization, commoning and social good in design and art practices

 

PhD Programme Committee

News

25 November 2025

TILL DEATH DO US PART

The new short film by OffiCine – IED for the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.

19 November 2025

IED Alumni Desk Show

Behind the scenes of creative professions.

14 November 2025

From all over the world to Turin: IED welcomes its new international students

Two days between campus spaces and the city center, where new international students, guided by a treasure hunt, started to find their way, meet each other, and grow as a group

14 November 2025

This was IED MUSES Talks: Quayola

In the first episode of the second season of the inspirational talk series by IED, the renowned multimedia artist revealed the key elements of his work at the intersection of art, design, and technology.

11 November 2025

Adriano Giannini at IED Milan for a Special Lecture

Adriano Giannini was the protagonist of the new Special Lecture organized by OffiCine-IED and IED Cinema, the Film School of the Istituto Europeo di Design.

10 November 2025

IED presents The Searchlights: Photography as a Political Gesture

The second chapter of the three-year project Ti Vorrei Dire (I Would Like to Tell You), developed in collaboration with Gallerie d’Italia – Intesa Sanpaolo, invites reflection on the power of the image as a political and conscious act — one capable of giving voice and presence to what often remains unseen

10 November 2025

IED Roma Design Awards 2025

The seventh edition celebrates innovation with an immersive exhibition

07 November 2025

ADCI Awards 2025: IED on the podium!

Five award-winning projects, including two Golds in the Student category for the projects SPICY:AM by IED Milano and IRREGULAR ITALIC by IED Roma.

06 November 2025

Casa IED opens in New York: a new space for design culture and creative exchange

In Williamsburg, the creative heart of New York, Casa IED has opened as the first of the spaces that IED will dedicate to cultural exchange and collaborative design.

Don't miss it

Exhibitions and Festival

20 November 2025 - 25 January 2026

Florence

Bones of Tomorrow

From 20 November 2025 to 25 January 2026, Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi and IED Firenze present Bones of Tomorrow by Andro Eradze.