2025-26 Designing for Sustainability MIT-HPI Research Program
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Open to MIT and HPI Principal Investigators
About
In 2022, MIT MAD and the Hasso Plattner Institute (HPI) co-created “Designing for Sustainability.” This program, funded by the Hasso Plattner Foundation, is a multi-year partnership to drive joint scientific design research in multidisciplinary teams at both institutes. It focuses on sustainable design, innovation, and digital technologies, through the allocation of approximately ten grants of up to $200,000 per year.
Creative collaboration across spatial, temporal, and cultural boundaries is central to design. The program's vision is to develop ambitious, long-term explorations related to the innovation strategies of design, to generate sustainable impact for society across various domains of practice. Design research teams with divergent backgrounds in computer science, AI, machine learning, engineering, planning, architecture, natural sciences, humanities, business and management are encouraged to apply.
We are thrilled to collaborate with HPI to apply the power of design to sustainability and digital technologies. By working together, the research talents of HPI and MIT can accelerate design innovations for a low-carbon economy.
— John Ochsendorf, founding director of the MIT Morningside Academy for Design
Alongside artificial intelligence, design research is a key driver for innovation in sustainability.
— Ralf Herbrich, managing director and professor at HPI, Chair for Artificial Intelligence and Sustainability
2025-26 Timeline
CALL FOR APPLICATIONS NOW OPEN
WORKSHOP / March 24-25, 2025
A workshop will be held at MIT to allow meetings between HPI and MIT researchers. The workshop is meant to identify possible synergies and areas of interest between attendees, facilitating their ability to propose collaborative projects. Participating in the workshop does not guarantee funding. MIT applicants must have PI status.
APPLICATION DEADLINE / June 4, 2025
Teams may be contacted with follow-up questions throughout mid-June.
DECISIONS
Teams will be notified by June 30, 2025.
Spring 2025 HPI-MIT Workshop
Funding and guidelines
If you are an HPI or MIT Principal Investigator interested in the “Designing for Sustainability” program, please download and read carefully the document(s).
2025 Call for Applications & 2025 Application Guidelines / PDF, including 2025 Application Cover Sheet
2025 Project Extension / PDF
2025 Pre-proposal Questionnaire (One-page Summary for MIT Teams) / Document
2025 Research Project Plan Template / Document
2025 Budget Template for PIs / Spreadsheet
Principal investigators must be tenured or tenure-track professor at MIT or the Hasso Plattner Institute. They must be authorized to supervise PhD candidates as the primary dissertation advisor. The National Science Foundation (USA) eligibility criteria define PI requirements. Principal investigators can propose promising and excellent junior scholars (PhD students and postdocs, the minimum requirement is a full Master’s degree or equivalent) who apply with a research proposal.
Program components
The program focuses on community building, research and knowledge exchange, and the creation of joint research outcomes.
- Part of the program are two collaborative on-site workshops, one at HPI and one at MIT each year. External guests might give talks or feedback on the projects. Parts of these community events may be open to the academic public, creating vibrant exchanges between researchers and other stakeholders.
- Approximately every six weeks, virtual research seminars and exchange workshops will take place. Based on a rigorous curriculum, PIs of the program and external guests will give talks about current ideas, theories, methods, and progress on joint papers. Moreover, community members will exchange information about their projects and share feedback. In addition to advancing knowledge, these virtual events ensure strong community building throughout the year.
- The program includes a yearly research exchange, i.e., a stay on the partner campus for one week, so that every program member has the chance to better connect with colleagues from the other institution and initiate further projects. These visits are part of the funded budget (app. $1,500 per person).
Selection Criteria
Funding decisions favor projects that set new research priorities for this emergent knowledge domain. The collaboration plan must demonstrate scientific depth and mechanisms to sustain the proposed innovation. Selection is also based on scientific merit, methodology, rigor, and evidence of open collaboration.
We seek proposals positioned to yield deep insights into building and designing sustainability and have visibility and potential to make a large societal impact. The protocols that design researchers might apply to achieve “insights” versus “data” will be appraised by the selection committee for viability.
Priorities
We are particularly interested in the following areas:
- Approaches for sustainable design innovation: How can new frameworks, tools, systems, and methods — in design, computer science, or other disciplines — augment, capture, and re-use successful practices for sustainable design innovation? How can stakeholders engage in sustainable design innovation?
- Motivating stakeholders in sustainable design innovation: What are the impacts and roles of human stakeholders in the process of sustainable design innovation? How can stakeholders be motivated to implement more sustainable solutions in the future?
- Assessing the impacts of sustainable design innovation: What is the impact of design on human, business, and technology performance as it relates to sustainability and reaching United Nations Sustainable Development goals? How do tools, systems, and methods create the right innovation at the right time? How do they fail? Why is now the right time to apply these tools, methods and/or (computational) systems? What societal impact can design and computer science have in navigating digital transformation or for reaching the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals?
We prioritize funding projects with research priorities reflecting the novelty of this emergent knowledge domain. The collaboration plan must demonstrate scientific depth and mechanisms to sustain the proposed innovation. Selection is also based on scientific merit, methodology, rigor, and evidence of open collaboration.