Conference article

This positioning paper presents a six-month scoping study on the role of design in one of the UK Governments’ science and technology innovation centres, the Satellite Applications Catapult. Established in 2013 by Innovate UK, the remit of the Satellite Applications is to support economic growth through the exploitation of space with the application of satellite technologies. As one of the earliest adopters of design, the Satellite Applications, with the Transport Systems Catapult, was selected by the UK government’s innovation network, the Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN), to be the sites for this research. For the purpose of this paper the Satellite Applications Catapult is presented as a case study as a first step to explain how different design practices shape the organisation’s innovation capability with the paper conceptualising how these activities work at different levels of the organisation. To reflect on design more generally across the Catapults this paper also frames these innovation services as Knowledge Intensive Business Services (KIBS), so that design’s capability within these contexts can be better understood as knowledge sharing and transformational practies within the organization and externally with clients.

design, KIBs, service innovation