Design London was established in 2007 following the Cox Review: Creativity in Business with the aim of stirring together the scientific, engineering, business and creative design communities to enhance business and public sector innovation.

The project was a collaboration between RCA and Imperial College London, with a remit to develop, teach, research, and deliver radical new practices, tools and processes that transform the way organisations innovate, and help them translate their creativity into commercial success.

From 2011, Design London's academic and business incubation programmes have been embedded in the core activities of the Royal College of Art and Imperial College London, and a new interdisciplinary Master's degree in Service Design will be launched by the RCA in association with Imperial from 2012/13.

The interdisciplinary programmes are now embedded in the core activities of both institutions with new courses, an expanded programme for business incubation, and the Innovation, Entrepreneurship & Design (I&ED) Fellowships. The Fellowship programme enables RCA students and researchers to participate in the academic programmes and projects of Imperial College Business School and benefit from a truly interdisciplinary educational experience.

The RCA-led collaboration delivers integrated design-led innovation and entrepreneurship programmes for MSc, Master's of Engineering students and MBA at Imperial College London, as well as for the MA students at the Royal College of Art. The collaboration offers executive education programmes for industry and the public sector and helps its students and recent alumni transform their creativity into new business ventures through the RCA's business incubator, which is supported by NESTA (the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts).