The RCA is unusual both in its particular juxtaposition of art in a design environment and design in an art environment, and in its advancement of knowledge in the principles of art and design in their specific relation to industrial and commercial processes. The belief that knowledge can be generated, and questions answered, through analytic scholarship, experimentation and innovative examples of artefacts and designs, underpins our developing research projects and disciplines. We aim to offer our research students the best environment and resources to develop and promote their research within the fields of art and design.

The College plays a key role – nationally and internationally – in the development of the research of art and design. Our interdisciplinary structure has facilitated our rapidly expanding research profile, as has our commitment to individual research practice, enquiry and output of international excellence. In the 2001 Research Assessment Exercise carried out by the Higher Education Funding Council for England, the RCA received the highest score ‘5’ for art and design. In 2006 the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) cited the RCA’s Research Methods Course as a national example of good practice.

Current research at the College falls broadly into the following three areas: developmental research (including projects that explore new techniques and processes, and develop new and modified materials with a range of applications); applied research (including design for manufacture, inclusive and sustainable design and strategic design concepts and prototypes that could provide significant value to business and industry) and historical, critical, cultural and studio research (where this relates to, and/or informs art, media, design, production and practice).

Collaborative research is wide ranging and takes many forms. In addition to Research Council, public-sector and trust-sponsored projects, collaboration with business is an increasingly important component of the College’s contribution to the creative economy. Business partnerships have included projects with Apple Computer, Philips, Hewlett-Packard, Interval (California) and IDEO Product Design. Research activity includes MPhil and PhD students and staff working as individuals, in groups and with partners and collaborators inside and outside the College. The Helen Hamlyn Research Associates Programme provides an ideal platform for industry to work with new design graduates on research and development that responds to social and commercial imperatives. The RCA’s academic life is enhanced by extensive relationships with other world-class institutions – academic, museum and industrial – including Imperial College London, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the National Portrait Gallery and the Science Museum.