HOST

ServDes2027’s host, the School of Design, Arts and the Creative Industries (DACI) is part of Northumbria University’s new faculty of Culture & Society that also includes Business, Law, Social Sciences. We are keen to investigate shadows across disciplinary boundaries: whatever and wherever that might be.

Northumbria University is based in Newcastle upon Tyne in the UK’s North East. Northumbria deeply cares about the impact it has and makes on the North East region and its people. Still marked by their historic coal mining, fishing and ship building industries, many parts of the North East continue to face underinvestment, public service concerns, and ongoing economic disparities.

The region includes diverse rural, urban, and coastal areas. Its challenges range from reducing child poverty, securing health service provision and equitable education to developing renewable energy and preparing for water scarcity. Newcastle with its quayside and the nearby rural and coastal areas will connect ServDes27 with opportunities from hospitality to health, from transportation to technology, from poverty to planetary challenges.

Northumbria has rich and long history of providing cutting-edge design education, with prominent alumni including Sir Jonathan Ive (former Senior Vice-President, Apple), Rob Law MBE (Founder, Trunki), Nicola Morgan (Designer, Lanvin, Paris) and Tim Brown (Chief Executive, IDEO).

A research-intensive University, Northumbria’s mission is to change lives through education and research, tackling the global challenges of our age to transform society and the economy. 

Northumbria draws significantly more local first-generation students than most universities in the UK and been recognized as UK University of the Year 2022 by Times Higher Education and Modern University of the Year 2025 by The Times and The Sunday Times. Northumbria’s values, principles and behaviours echo those of the ServDes community and make it a fitting host.