Dr Michael Stead

Lecturer in Sustainable Design Futures

Research Overview

"To talk about the future is useful only if it leads to action now." E.F. Schumacher

Michael is Lecturer in Sustainable Design Futures at Lancaster University's School of Design and the Imagination Design Research Lab.

Michael is also:

Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts' Research Excellence Framework (REF2029) Impact Lead
a member of Lancaster University's Impact Accelerator Executive Board
a member of Lancaster University's Faculty of Arts & Social Science/Lancaster Management School Research Ethics Committee
a Fellow of the AdvanceHE Higher Education Academy (FHEA)
a Curriculum Education Development Academy (CEDA) mentor
a member of Lancaster University's Faculty of Arts & Social Science's Sustainability Knowledge Exchange group
the Imagination Sustainable Regenerative Design Futures research group lead

Michael's current research applies and advances approaches including Research through Design, Speculative Design, Co-Design and More-than-Human Design to prototype and evaluate radical new visions for sustainable, regenerative and more-than-human futures. In doing so, his research critically and creatively interrogates the evolving relationship between emerging data-driven technologies and key sustainability challenges such as Net Zero 2050 and the Circular Economy.

From energy production through manufacturing to within the home, emerging so-called ‘smart’ data-driven technologies like the Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence and Digital Fabrication andare increasingly being embraced throughout society, yet the wider environmental and social impacts of this rapid shift are little understood.

To explore these issues, Michael is developing innovative design-led interdisciplinary approaches and tools in collaboration with industry, policymakers and publics which raise awareness and support the adoption of sustainable and equitable data-driven technologies and related practices. With emphasis on the responsible decentralisation and democratisation of technologies, his research investigates cross-cutting themes including Right-to-Repair, Data-driven Sustainability, Distributed Manufacturing and Post-growth Innovation.

Supervised By

Michael currently supervises 5 x PhD Researchers -

Hiroko Oshima – UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council NWCDTP PhD Studentship 2024-27 awardee – Circular Scenography, Eco-Fabrication, New Materialism, Aesthetic Innovation, Stage Design

Lisa Meaney – More-than-Human-Centred Design, Speculative Co-creation, Nature Recovery, Posthumanism

Chris Gilmour – Design for Sustainability, Material Futures, Next Generation Craft, 3D Design, Research through Design

Yu Duan – Social Innovation, Longevity Economy, Collaborative Futures, Health and Wellbeing, Participatory Design

Yifan Wang – Aging Communities, Smart Health Technologies, Participatory Speculative Design, Product Design

Research Grants

As Principal Investigator, Michael has been collaborating with partners on the following funded projects:

EPSRC Trustworthy Autonomous Systems Hub funded InterNET ZERO: Towards Resource Responsible Trustworthy Autonomous Systems project (£249K) - in collaboration with Nottingham (Computing) and Bristol (Science & Technology Studies) colleagues and partners Energy Systems Catapult, The Making Rooms and Subak, this project focusses on co-designing visions and pathways for future, more resource responsible and trustworthy autonomous Internet technologies built on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.

EPSRC Equitable Digital Societyfunded Fixing the Future: The Right-to-Repair and Equal-IoT project (Lancaster PI - £389K) combines research expertise from Design (Imagination), Human-Computer Interaction (Nottingham), Technology Law and Ethics (Edinburgh) and Digital Humanities (Napier) in collaboration with partners The Making Rooms, BBC Research & Development, Which? and NCC to investigate how we can collectively design, build and sustain more repairable and equitable electronic 'smart' IoT devices as part of growing circular, digital economies across society.

AHRC IAA funded Generation Fix project (£18K) is developing, with partners The Making Rooms, a practical, ‘hands on’ educational toolkit which accelerates Digital Circular Economy repair skills and know-how within local communities.

ESRC EPSRC IAA funded The Repair Shop 2049 project (£14.5K) has explored, in collaboration with The Making Rooms the Right-to-Repair for electronic 'smart' IoT devices and the design of pathways for developing local repair infrastructures and circular economies.

EPSRC PETRAS funded Edge of Reality project (£84K), with partners BBC Research & Development has investigated the sustainability and cyber-security of data generated by our interactions with 'smart' Edge-IoT technologies. This builds on the previously EPSRC PETRAS funded Edge of Tomorrow project (£42K).

As Co-Investigator, Michael has been contributing Speculative, More-than-Human and Participatory Design Futuring expertise to the following funded interdisciplinary projects:

EPSRC Digital Circular Economy funded Reimagining Digital Research Infrastructure in Environmental Science for A Sustainable Future project (£780K) alongside UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH), School of Computing & Communications (SCC), Lancaster Management School (LUMS) and Small World Consulting colleagues.

LU Cross-Faculty Research Catalyst funded Solar Futures project (£5K) with Lancaster Environment Centre colleagues.

External Roles

Review Board Member - Association for Computing Machinery’s Journal on Computing and Sustainable Societies (ACM JCSS)

Professional Membership - Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)

Member - British Academy Early Career Researcher Network

Member - Council for Higher Education in Art and Design (CHEAD)

Current Teaching

UG Module Convener – LICA241: Design Visualisations

UG Supervisor – LICA300: Final Dissertation

UG Supervisor – LICA345: Final Dissertation

UG Supervisor – CNLICA345: Final Dissertation (Beijing Jiaotong University)

PGT Module Convener – LICA429: Imagination Lab

PGT Supervisor – LICA426: Design Management Major Research Project

PGR Supervisor – 5 x PhD Researchers

PhDs Examined

Agnieszka Dutkowska-Żuk - Designing for Human Memory In A Future Scenario of Infinite Data Storage: A Speculative Approach (2025)

Sejal Rajesh Changede - Learning from Traditional Products and Practices in India for Design for Sustainability (2024)

Amirul Fahmi Razali - Designing Malaysian Identity: An Exploratory Study of Malaysian Product Design Identity (2021)

Career Details

Prior to his lectureship, Michael was a Post-Doctoral Research Associate on the Research England funded Beyond Imagination project. Alongside his doctoral research, Michael worked as a Research Associate on two EPSRC funded research projects – PETRAS Internet of Things hub and Liveable Cities – and then as Design Visualiser on the AHRC funded research projects Living Design and Design Ecologies. Before completing his PhD and Masters at Lancaster, he gained practical, commercial design expertise working as an industrial product designer.

Qualifications

AdvanceHE Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA)

Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice (PGCAP)

PhD in Digital Innovation (Design + Computing), EPSRC HighWire Digital Economy Centre for Doctoral Training, Lancaster University. Full Scholarship.

Master’s in Research (Digital Innovation - Design + Computing), EPSRC HighWire Digital Economy Centre for Doctoral Training, Lancaster University. Full Scholarship. Distinction.

Master’s in Product Design Innovation (New Product Development), University of Salford. Distinction.

PhD Supervision Interests

Michael's practice-based research is interdisciplinary and cuts across fields including Design, Sustainability, Computer Science, Future Studies and Science and Technology Studies. Michael welcomes PhD proposals interested in researching new ways for designing and adopting more sustainable, regenerative and more-than-human products, services, policies and infrastructures across society. This work will increase our understanding of the deepening relationship between environmental and social sustainability issues and emergent technologies (like the Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence, Digital Fabrication and Edge Computing) and develop methods and practice for redressing climate change now and into the future. Such research will draw upon and advance interdisciplinary research fields including Design for Sustainability, More-than-Human-Centred Design, Regenerative Design, Multi-Species Design, Pluriversal Design, Sustainable Interaction Design, Transition Design, Biodesign and Post-growth Innovation. Please get in touch with Michael to discuss your PhD research ideas and supervision - m.stead1@lancaster.ac.uk