Professor R. Jerrard
Visiting Professor
Bob Jerrard is the Emeritus Professor of Design Studies, previously Director of the Research Centre for Design and the Creative Industries, Deputy Director of Research and Research Degrees Chair (BIAD), at Birmingham City University. He has supervised 20 Phds and examined over 45. His own PhD and early work as a Research Fellow at the Royal College of Art centred on the specific problems faced by technology users in the creative industries. He has published widely on theoretical and social aspects of design. He is a Fellow of the Design Research Society, an Associate Editor of the Journal of Research Practice, previously a member of AHRC’s Peer Review College and a research consultant for several UK universities, EPSRC and international publishing groups.
Grants
- AHRC Pilot Dissemination Grant- Risk-taking in Design: an investigation of critical decision points in new product development (£10,500)
- AHRC Design Innovation Grant- ‘Gut feeling’ in NPD CI with Prof L. Martin (£60,000)
- Design Research in the West Midlands (University Consortium) (£12,000)
- AHRC major research grant- Risk-taking in Design: an investigation of critical decision points in New Product Development (£145,000)
- Risk in NPD, Design Council Innovation Fund (£35,000) HEFCE Work-based Learning Research, (£33,000)
- European Social Fund, Masters Course research and development, (£47,000, £112,000 and £336,000)
- Higher Education Branch, the Training Agency, High Technology National Training Scheme (£104,000).
Other current activities
- Member of AHRC/JISC Design Research forum
- Member of the Risk in Design EPSRC Cluster Group, Design Society RISK SIG and AHRC Roundtable on arts and humanities perspectives on risk
- Member of the Communication Tools for Emergent Properties Research Programme, University of Manchester, Research Councils UK
- Occasional editorial consultant: Sage, Taylor & Francis and Routledge.
- Occasional Reviews: Design Studies, Design Journal and Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies
- Consultant: RAE/Research Excellence Framework: Staffordshire University, Nottingham Trent University, Buckinghamshire New University, Middlesex University; Research Training Resources (RTR) Scheme: University of the Creative Arts, Masters Programmes: University of Brighton, University of Huddersfield
- Member of the Art Design Media Subject Centre Reference Group: The Higher Education Academy
- Professorial Panels- Open University, University of Salford, University of Manchester, Kingston University
Major research projects
PI: Applied Research and Knowledge Transfer - established the relationship between Applied Research and Knowledge Transfer. Evaluation of knowledge transfer potentially relates to the development of sustainable processes, retaining performance knowledge and enriching current research environments. The research included longitudinal investigation and recording of social and economic changes within knowledge transfer projects, for example through ‘living archiving’. This, in turn means considering new desegregation of such knowledge archives, new reflections on experiential knowledge particularly in small firms to capture the ‘stuff of interventions’ but also develop research sustainability.
PI: Risk Taking in Design – an investigation of critical decision points in new product development. This research is mainly focusing on human/non-measurable aspects of risk which are not usually ‘calculated’ by standard risk assessment tools and formulas. These are especially relevant in small and medium companies that do not have the structure a larger company has to perform such assessments. Many of these assessments are viewed in small companies as ‘what feels right’ and decisions are often made using ‘gut feelings’.
PI: Online Learning Contracts and work-based learning. Research into how people learn at work, how this may be integrated into university masters courses and the associated development of on-line learning contracts.
PI: Fashion Design in Regional Culture Research into the interlinked issues of ethnicity, entrepreneurism and the culture of cities. This work centred on Birmingham and its clothing industry and is linked to other studies in New York, Los Angeles, Paris and Amsterdam.
