Theme and key objective
You don’t need to be a visionary to see that humanity faces huge challenges. They are seen and recognized by governments, NGOs, industry and citizens. They all agree but it is remarkable and frustrating that change is going slowly due to the wickedness of the problems. Many of these challenges have similar characteristics. These so called grand challenges are multi-stakeholder by nature, they cross the private and public domains, there is often a lack of an enchanting vision, there is a big restraint towards experimenting and they lack clear ownership. The only way to tackle these problems is to look and intervene at a system and organization level by creating visions and prototyping solutions. The Delft University of Technology believes in a knowledge driven approach, collaborating with all stakeholders, trusting creativity and acting courageous. The lab kicks-off with a collaboration with the Netherlands Red Cross: How to innovate humanitarian aid.
Lab leadership
Jeroen van Erp, Maaike Kleinsmann, Rebecca Price
Support: Geert van den Boogaard
Contribution to IDE research portfolio
The Big Picture lab contributes to research in the field of smart concepts that bring together the interests of all stakeholders involved. It involves research in the field of meaningful interactions, ownership and system thinking.
Societal and/or economic relevance
The raison d’être of the Big Picture Lab lies in social and societal challenges. It is the main objective to do research and to develop ideas in the field of different topics. We strive for long lasting relationships with
Student opportunities
We believe it is important every idea is tested in real life. Projects in the Design Labs may run for a longer period. Several students will work simultaneously and subsequently on the topic whereas the project lead – a researcher or professor from the faculty – will take care of the coherence.
We strive for pivoting the lab by using insights of every project and process to improve the next ones. Every graduate should pass his or her learnings onwards to their successors. The lab will feed itself.
Students will work on a project within a team with other graduates and researchers. The Picture Lab project wants ambitious students that want to contribute to the greater good. We are looking for great team players with strong analytical and conceptual skills, strong characters who can argue and debate their insights within an unruly context. The graduation projects are part of an ongoing project.
To meet the challenges of the future, we need students who dare to explore different ways and at the same time are able to light the way. We have to be idealistic enough to bring real change and be pragmatic enough to realise it. At this moment we’re focussing on graduation projects.
Lab Consortium
IDE partners
The Netherlands Red Cross