Northumbria University‘s School of Design is ranked as one of the leading design schools in the UK. It has expertise in PhD training in design research, with particular interests in IoT, data-driven technologies and digital technology design. Their CoCreate research group explores societal challenges and cultural experiences through participatory and design-led research, with an emphasis on interaction and digital technology design. Alongside Mozilla, the project team at Northumbria were founding members and long-term collaborators of the Open IoT Studio.

The university co-ordinates OpenDoTT and will lead on design research, research skills and doctoral progression.

Mozilla is a global non-profit dedicated to putting you in control of your online experience and shaping the future of the web for the public good. Mozilla have well-established commitments to creating future leaders and advocates through their Mozilla Fellows programmes. Mozilla recognises the importance of human-centred and design-led research, and are making significant investment in this area around their facilities in Berlin, including close collaborations with the University of Dundee.

Mozilla will lead on research and training around internet health, open technology and policy engagement.

FutureEverything is an award-winning innovation lab and cultural agency that has helped shape the emergence of digital culture in Europe. Established in Manchester in 1995, FutureEverything operates at the intersection of art, technology and society. Taking an artist-led and human-centred approach, our offer provides a unique opportunity to consider, challenge and test the use of technology in creative and unexpected ways.

FutureEverything will support OpenDoTT in disseminating work through their international events.

Officine Innesto is an innovative company that deals with design and technology through education, workshops and physical prototyping. An integral part of the Arduino community, Officine Innesto has developed products, maintained web services and designed and organized European workshops. They also produced FabLab Torino, one of the biggest fabrication laboratories in Italy. Since 2013 Officine Innesto has promoted maker-oriented, educational programs addressing young children, such as Fablabforkids.

Officine Innesto will provide training around open hardware and supervision of ESRs.

Quicksand is an interdisciplinary consultancy facilitating the creation of meaningful experiences through design research and innovation. Quicksand is globally recognised for its expertise in user centred innovations for emerging markets. Their work supports organisations in envisioning programs, products and services that are future facing, disruptive, and yet rooted in principles of user centred design. Their agenda for expanding the scope for design thinking has embedded them in varied sectors as finance, water and sanitation, education, new media and technology.

Quicksand will provide training around design ethnography.

SimplySecure is a non-profit organisation with an educational mission dedicated to helping users protect their privacy and understand how algorithms shape their lives. Current projects include research into Internet of Things and machine learning applications. Simply Secure conducts open research and consulting, and have helped organisations such as the Tor Project, Open Source Design, Amnesty International, and Ranking Digital Rights with user experience design expertise.

SimplySecure will provide training around usable security.

STBY is a design research company based in Amsterdam and London. Their creative research projects connect organisations with the lives and experiences of their customers. This helps their clients to innovate their service offering, making it more valuable for both their customers and their business. Their projects generate rich, visually illustrated and engaging materials, that bring real people into the heart of service innovation processes.

STBY will provide training around visual design research.

Thingscon is a global community of practitioners around Internet of Things (IoT) and connected products, as well as one of Europe’s leading conference networks in this field. ThingsCon started out as an annual conference, and it has grown into a global community that fosters the creation of a human-centric and responsible IoT.

Thingscon will provide training around responsible IoT and supervision of ESRs.

Universität der Künst Berlin (University of the Arts Berlin) is one of the largest and most diversified universities of the arts in the world. The teaching offered mostly in traditional formats in the four colleges of Fine Arts, Architecture, Media and Design, Music and Performing Arts as well as at the Central Institute for Continued Education/ Berlin Career College encompasses the full spectrum of the arts and related academic studies in more than 70 courses.

UdK will provide supervision for ESRs and training around internet policy.

The University of Dundee is one of the UK’s leading universities, internationally recognised for its expertise across a range of disciplines including science, medicine, engineering and art, and is ranked as having the best design research in Scotland. The university has taken part in open technology and design research projects including IoT on connected high streets, hacking and making in neighbourhoods and citizen sensing

The University of Dundee will provide supervision for ESRs.

WeVolver is a group of driven open hardware enthusiasts from various backgrounds, such as design, software, and engineering. Their collaboration platform for hardware development allows people to share files and knowledge of engineering projects including robots, 3D printers, and drones. Using those resources enables others to make, improve and collaborate on these projects.

WeVolver will support OpenDoTT in sharing open hardware developed through the project.