Apply now for the 2022 Design Intelligence Award

The much-anticipated 7th edition of the Design Intelligence Award – DIA 2022 – is now accepting entries. For the second year running, CBBC is partnering with DIA to showcase the best design and innovation that the UK has to offer

Over the years, the Design Intelligence Award has rapidly developed into one of the world’s most prestigious award programmes. Celebrating global design, entrepreneurship and business success, it represents an opportunity for UK entrepreneurs to access global decision-makers, investors and commissioners, build their reputation internationally, and grab a share of a £600,000 (RMB 5,000,000) award fund.

DIA has a strong trade and commercialisation focus, and its Industrial Transformation Service provides support for project landing, investment, entrepreneurship guidance, design refinement, marketing promotion and sci-tech transformation to accelerate market expansion. The DIA Trade and Business Portal helps applicants evaluate the potential of products or services, offering guidance on how to grow business in China. 

DIA recognises effort, dedication and innovation in four categories – spanning Cultural Innovation, Life Wisdom, Industrial Equipment and Digital Economy – designed to appeal to both established businesses with products new to the market and early-stage innovators with prototypes capable of being brought to market. The theme of DIA 2022 focuses on ‘Design Collaboration’,  hoping to bring together designers around the world to explore collaboration and sustainability in the post-Covid era through design.

UK applicants are serial winners at the DIA, receiving Gold and Silver awards in previous years. In 2021, Lancaster-based O-Innovations received one of the two Future Talents awards (worth RMB 80,000) for the O-Wind, the world’s first wind turbine that can harness both vertical and horizontal winds to generate clean electricity with a unique bladeless design that allows it to fit safely into dense urban environments.

At DIA 2021, UK companies were prominent among the Honourable Mentions too, including Shifa Technologies’ ShiVent, a simple, low-cost, non-electric and oxygen-efficient non-invasive ventilator created in response to the Covid-19 pandemic; and London-based material technology company Petit Pli, which has created a sustainable material that ‘grows’ as children grow, reducing the need to buy new clothes.

DIA is free to enter and you will gain invaluable exposure to supply chains, investors, commissioners, and other like-minded professionals. Plus, it’s super easy to enter, with just an online form to fill in.

Click here to apply for the 2022 Design Intelligence Award — the entry deadline is 8 July