NERD ∞ – New Experimental Research in Design (Call for Papers)

The unique epistemic and innovative potential of Design Research is increasingly recognized across the academic landscape and is in growing demand from institutions, businesses, and policymakers alike. By bridging traditionally separate forms of practice and modes of knowledge, Design Research occupies a distinctive position – one that challenges clear disciplinary boundaries, formal conventions, and implicit assumptions about secured knowledge and linear progress in traditional research fields. Inherently, however, such a position can never be taken for granted, but faces its own characteristic pressures. At a moment when transdisciplinarity has become a much-advertised hallmark of most transformative research and agentic AI systems are being employed not only in the realization, but increasingly also in the very search for solutions to complex societal problems, it seems all the more necessary to reassert and imaginatively extend through concrete projects Design Research’s competence in navigating the space between different knowledges and between theory and transfer into practical application.

Embracing the inherent openness of Design Research as a strength, the New Experimental Research in Design (NERD) conferences serve as an inclusive platform for showcasing, discussing, and critically examining the diverse ways in which design’s unique perspectives and capabilities can be employed as a research competence. NERD welcomes contributions from researchers worldwide, spanning all areas of Design Research, with a particular focus on empirical and experimental projects that demonstrate originality – or even boldness – in their choice of topics and methodological approaches.
The conference’s emphasis on empirical and experimental work reflects our conviction that the discourse on the value and potentials of Design Research should be led by example: What constitutes an effective method or approach only becomes evident when put into practice. For this reason, NERD also does not adhere to any predefined topics or schools of thought, recognizing that the qualitatively new transcends established categories.

Developed and realized by BIRD – the Board of International Research in Design, which publishes the book series of the same name at Birkhäuser – as an annual event with changing venues, NERD has firmly established itself and proven its productivity as a conference format, now entering its eighth iteration.

NERD ∞

NERD ∞ will be hosted by the Faculty of Media at Kiel University of Applied Sciences a stone’s throw from the Kiel Fjord, in midsummer 2027. The event will feature a curated selection of 30-minute research presentations, each followed by 30 minutes for audience questions and in-depth discussion.

We invite submissions from advanced graduate students, doctoral candidates, and early-career postdoctoral researchers to present their ongoing research or completed theses. Contributions should demonstrate a well-conceived, design-based, and empirical or experimental approach and may engage with a wide range of socially, culturally, and intellectually relevant questions.

We take the attributes New and Experimental in NERD seriously – even if sometimes we ourselves can’t say exactly what they mean: if we could, they would probably no longer be new or experimental, but conventional and predictable instead. In other words, we want to be surprised – by bold, unconventional, humorous, even anarchic approaches that challenge expectations and push the boundaries of Design Research.

How to apply

To apply, please submit an extended abstract (1,000–1,500 words) detailing your research project or the specific aspect you wish to present. Submissions should be sent to bird@bird-international-research-in-design.org by January 31, 2027. All submissions will undergo a blind review process, and applicants will be notified of the outcome by March 15, 2027. The conference will be held in English.

Call for Papers
NERD ∞ – New Experimental Research in Design
(Kiel, Jul 1–2, 2027)
Kiel University of Applied Sciences
Faculty of Media
July 1–2, 2027

Deadline: January 31, 2027

https://www.bird-international-research-in-design.org/conferences