We’ve officially wrapped up the Distributed Design Platform’s 2022-2023 Mobility Scheme and we’re already excited for the 2023-2024 edition! Read on to discover what happened in the last edition and opportunities to apply for this year. 

2022-2023: 14 talents, 13 events, 1 program

The Distributed Design Platform Mobility Scheme is an annual rolling open-call to support Creative Talents to participate in the local activities of the Distributed Design Platform members beyond the borders of their normal place of work. It aims to provide monetary prizes to Creative Talents that assist in the creation, production, exhibition, and visibility of their work, for example at annual design weeks, exhibitions, and Maker Faires. 

In this last edition, 14 creative talents participated in 13 different events throughout Europe. Events included: Repair Festival with Happy Lab Vienna, Milan and Dutch Design Weeks, the “Design of circular mindsets in Fab Labs and makerspaces” workshop at the DDC, and FemFabrik for a giant embroidery workshop in La Clandestina.

The creative talents were not only participants but also event leaders: Doming Club Creative Talents Maud Bausier and Antoine Jaunard gave a talk at the Open Food Factory event in Polifactory while Asya Illgun led a workshop of developing mycelium-based beehives at Fab Lab Budapest for the FET-EU project, Hiveopolis. 

All of the Creative Talents who participated in the Mobility Scheme are also invited to join the Distributed Design Platform’s Online Exhibition.

Upcoming events for Mobility Scheme participants

Now that we’ve wrapped the 2022-2023 edition, we’re ready to kick off the 2023-2024 Mobility Scheme!

Our Distributed Design Platform members have already begun to put together a list of amazing events for Creative Talents to attend. Events include:

• Distributed Design Residency at Happy Lab Vienna (now until June 10, 2023, Vienna)
  • Take your project to the next stage with support, trainings, machine-access, studio space and more provided by the team at Happy Lab Vienna
• Circular Economy in Makerspaces workshop by the Danish Design Center (May 22 2023, Copenhagen)
  • In this workshop, you will dive into DDC’s tool, the Circular Strategies Wheel, and work with how to apply it in your context. The workshop will help you identify new opportunities and ideas for increased circularity in your project by looking into the different circular strategies. 
• Distributed Design Residency at MAKER (May 22-June 9 2023, Copenhagen)
  • Creatives are invited to work on an emerging, current or past project that reaches for the vision of Cities as circular, resilient and symbiotic micro factories. Through the residency, you’ll have the opportunity to collaborate and connect with national and international creative talents, learn from experts in the field and explore new ways of approaching urban development. 
• re:publica festival (June 5-7 2023, Berlin)
  • Distributed Design Platform is hosting several talks and workshops during re:publica festival including: “Envisioning distributed food hubs with citizens, Fab Labs & Fab Cities,” a collaboration between the FoodSHIFT2030 project and the Distributed Design Platform to explore the development of distributed social food hubs; and “Money, skills and work” by Kickstarter and the Distributed Design Platform to illustrate how emerging creatives can meet the market. Up to three international Creative Talents not already associated with the Distributed Design Platform will be selected to attend the festival.

Apply to this year’s Mobility Scheme now!

Interested in taking part in this year’s Mobility Scheme? Use the google form here to apply. The application should take about 20 minutes to complete. Selected participants will receive 500 € to participate in or lead an event of their choosing outside of their local context, like one of those mentioned above. Winners can also use the funds to further develop their project as they choose. 

Here you can read the full participation guide to better understand what it means to participate etc.

An important note: The Distributed Design Platform Mobility Scheme supports design and innovation that is created by, with, and for underrepresented groups. Persons of color, women and dissident gender (i.e. nonbinary, agender, pangender) individuals, the LGTBQ+ community, migrants, and those identifying at the nexus of these identities are still underrepresented in the fields of design and innovation and we strive to support these groups through the Mobility Scheme. When applying, applicants should also consider how their projects address, promote, and integrate equity and boost accessibility to diverse audiences.

Additionally, while Creative Talents must be residing within the European Union or participating countries in order to take part in the mobility scheme, we aspire to represent and include cultures and backgrounds around the world.