Design knowledge is more and more recognised as an important contributor to innovation. It is not only the importance of classical material design that matters, but in particular the importance of immaterial design such as strategic and conceptual design that is important. Service design is also growing in importance for innovation, as most new solutions combine new services, new products and new business models.

A new institute for strategic interactive design and service design has recently been established at the Danish Design School in 2008. Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design (CIID) incorporates education, research and consultancy.

Internationally, there is a high demand for interaction design and service design - both disciplines are viewed to be key innovation drivers, and an educational programme that interfaces with academia and industry is required to reflect this.

In joint collaboration with the Danish Design School, CIID launched the Interaction Design Pilot Year in September 2008. CIID encourages a multi-cultural and multi-disciplinary environment, and 21 students from all over the world have been chosen to participate in this intensive full-time pilot. The Danish Government, Novo Nordisk and the JL Business Foundation have all awarded financial funding for the planning and implementation of the pilot year.

Source: http://ciid.dk/; http://ciid.dkds.dk