Dr Miriam Ribul
- Senior Research Fellow in Materials Circularity for Distributed Manufacture
-
Centre for Materials Science & Culture
Miriam Ribul is Senior Research Fellow in Materials Circularity for Distributed Manufacture in the Centre for Materials Science & Culture at the Royal College of Art. Her research investigates how biomaterial design practices can contribute to circular material systems and bio-based manufacturing futures, bringing together design, materials science, biological sciences, advanced manufacturing and environmental research.
Miriam specified and developed the first Bio Lab of the Centre for Materials Science & Culture as an environment for transdisciplinary material experimentation. Her work within the Centre advances research into the invention of materials through interdisciplinary research collaborations, research funding, PhD supervision, mentoring and management of researchers, and public and industry engagement.
From 2021–2025, Miriam was Co-Investigator and Lead of the Materials Circularity research strand in the UKRI National Interdisciplinary Textiles Circularity Centre (TCC), where her research investigated materials circularity across the textile value chain. She has also completed collaborative research as Co-Investigator on projects funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and Biomass and Biorefinery Network (BBNet), and as International Collaborator on a British Academy Global Communications Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) project.
Previously, Miriam was Sustainable Future Materials theme lead of the Burberry Materials Futures Research Group, the first research laboratory of the Materials Science Research Centre (2018–2020). Miriam holds a PhD from the University of the Arts London’s Centre for Circular Design with the London Doctoral Design Centre, an MA in Material Futures from Central Saint Martins and a BA in Textile Design. During her PhD, she was a Visiting Researcher at RISE Research Institutes of Sweden and the School of Chemical Engineering at Aalto University, Finland.
Her research is published internationally and presented through conferences and exhibitions. Her practice-based research explores biomaterial transformation through circular material design, laboratory experimentation and interdisciplinary collaboration, with work held in the permanent collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Key details
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Research interests
Miriam’s research investigates how materials, design methods and manufacturing processes can contribute to circular material systems and bio-based production. Her work develops interdisciplinary methods that connect material experimentation with whole-systems thinking, considering relationships between material lifecycles, biological systems, manufacturing infrastructures and place-based production.
Her current research focuses on biomaterials and biologically manufactured materials, materials circularity, distributed manufacture and circular material design. Through practice-based and collaborative research, she investigates how material systems can be designed to restore resources, reduce waste, enable new forms of production and support locally situated material futures.
Practice
Miriam’s process-driven and systemic practice-based approach looks to ReProgramme materials, ReSet material systems and ReDistribute manufacturing in the bioeconomy, with a focus on bio-based, biomaterial and biologically manufactured materials.
Posing the question ‘What material systems are we designing for?’, her approach aims to determine new applications of materials and design that explore the following themes:
- Distribution of tools and processes for accessible, viable and shared material technologies: a transition from the development of new materials to new uses of existing resources with adapted and distributed material technologies.
- Maintenance of shared material resources: restoration and maintenance processes that enable shared material systems.
- Locally situated material systems: enhancing local resources and skills in place-based contexts with the support of sustainable processes.
The practice approach encompasses design, materials science, biotechnology, advanced manufacturing and engineering, bioscience and ecology, and applies these through craftsmanship, materials research and place-based circular production contexts.
Research funding
Co-Investigator and Lead (2021–2024), Materials Circularity strand in the Textiles Circularity Centre. UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Interdisciplinary Circular Economy Centres Programme (NICER) (£5,436,699).
Co-Investigator (2020–2022), Bio-Manufacturing Textiles from Waste. BBSRC Super Follow-on project (£776,472).
Co-Investigator (2020–2021), Novel High-Performance Textile Composites. Biomass and Biorefinery Network (BBNet) Proof of Concept fund (£49,744).
International Collaborator (2019–2022), A Brazil-UK Network for Natural Polymers derived from Local Food Industry By-products. British Academy Global Challenges Research Fund (£23,000).
Principal Investigator (2021), Methods and methodologies for shaping Alternative Realities. Scoping project funded by the RCA RKEI Strategic Investment Fund.
Principal Investigator (2015–2018), London Doctoral Design Centre (LDoc), Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) at the University of the Arts London: PhD grant.
Visiting Researcher (2018), London Doctoral Design Centre (LDoc): Aalto University’s School of Chemical Engineering.
Visiting Researcher (2017), London Doctoral Design Centre (LDoc): RISE Research Institutes of Sweden.
Visiting Researcher (2016), London Doctoral Design Centre (LDoc): RISE Research Institutes of Sweden.
Project Lead (2014), European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST): Funding award towards leading a design-science project in ‘Design Possibilities for Regenerated Cellulose Materials’.
Researcher (2011-2015), Swedish Foundation for Strategic Environmental Research at the Centre for Circular Design, University of the Arts London (UAL): MISTRA Future Fashion.
Current and recent projects
Co-Investigator and Lead (2021–2024) Materials Circularity strand in the Textiles Circularity Centre. UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Interdisciplinary Circular Economy Centres Programme (NICER) with University of Leeds, University of York, Cranfield University, University of Manchester, University of Cambridge and University College London.
Co-Investigator (2020–2022) Bio-Manufacturing Textiles from Waste. BBSRC Super Follow-on project with University of York and University of Leeds.
Co-Investigator (2020–2021) Novel High-Performance Textile Composites. Biomass and Biorefinery Network (BBNet) Proof of Concept fund.
International Collaborator (2019–2022) A Brazil-UK Network for Natural Polymers derived from Local Food Industry By-products. British Academy Global Challenges Research Fund.
Principal Investigator (2021) Methods and methodologies for shaping Alternative Realities. Scoping project funded by the RCA RKEI Strategic Investment Fund.
Publications, exhibitions, other outcomes
Costa, S. A. da, Ribul, M., Baurley, S. and Costa, S. M. da (2026), ‘Agro-industrial waste with potential for textile applications’, book chapter.
Barrios-O’Neill, D., Ribul, M., Tommencioni Pisapia, C., Yan, Y., Rungta, D., Selby, L., Ren, X., Quintana, C., Morrow, R., Lanot, A., Baurley, S., McQueen-Mason, S. (2025). 'Learning by Transforming: Widening Access to Complex Circular Economy Science using Experimental Design', Proceedings of the 6th Product Lifetimes and the Environment Conference (PLATE), Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark, 2 – 4 July. https://doi.org/10.54337/plate2025-10353
Morrow, R., Hassan, M.H., Daskalakis, E., Ribul, M., Lanot, A., Arshad, H., Baurley, S., Potluri, P., Jorge Da Silva Bartolo, P. (2025) ‘3D printing Bacterial Cellulose and Polyethylene Terephthalate Glycol to Reinforce Textiles for material longevity within textiles circularity’, Materials Circular Economy, 7, 6.
Zhong, S., Gatti, E., Hardwick, J., Ribul, M., Cho, Y., and Obrist, M. (2025) 'LLM-mediated domain-specific voice agents: the case of TextileBot', Behaviour & Information Technology, pp. 1–33.
Lanot, A., Tiwari, S., Purnell, P., Omar, A. M., Ribul, M., Upton, D. J., Eastmond, H., Badruddin, I. J., Walker, H. F., Gatenby, A., Baurley, S., Bartolo, P. J.D.S., Rahatekar, S. S., Bruce, N. C., McQueen-Mason, S. J. (2024) 'Demonstrating a biobased concept for the production of sustainable bacterial cellulose from mixed textile, agricultural and municipal wastes', Journal of Cleaner Production, 144418.
Tommencioni Pisapia, C., Highley, B., Ribul, M., Baurley, S. and Bruce, N. C. (2024) 'Webbing Clothes Moths from pest to opportunity: a reflective case study in interdisciplinary design-biology collaborations.' DRS2024: Boston. pp. 1-16.
Ribul, M. (2023) 'Altered Properties: Introducing a Novel Circular Cellulose–Based Binder for Printing Textile Finishes.' Materials Circular Economy, 5, 20.
Morrow, R., Ribul, M., Eastmond, H., Lanot, A., Baurley, S. (2023) 'Bio-Producing Bacterial Cellulose Filaments through Co-Designing with Biological Characteristics.' Materials, 16, 4893.
Ribul, M. (2023) ‘Circular colour: Reusing colour from previous textile lifecycles in textile finishes’, Proceedings of the 5th Product Lifetimes and the Environment (PLATE) Conference, Aalto University, Espoo, Finland, 31 May – 2 June, pp. 849-854.
Ribul, M. (2021) ‘Regenerative Textiles: A Framework for Future Materials Circularity in the Textile Value Chain’, Sustainability, 13 (24), 13910.
Ribul, M., Lanot, A., Tommencioni Pisapia, C., Purnell, P.; McQueen-Mason, S. J., Baurley, S. (2021) ‘Mechanical, chemical, biological: Moving towards closed-loop bio-based recycling in a circular economy of sustainable textiles,’ Journal of Cleaner Production 326, 129325.
Ribul, M., Goldsworthy, K. and Collet, C. (2021) ‘Material-Driven Textile Design (MDTD): A Methodology for Designing Circular Material-Driven Fabrication and Finishing Processes in the Materials Science Laboratory,’ Sustainability 13 (3), 1268.
Costa, S. A., Ribul, M., Baurley, S., Costa, S. (2020) ‘Agro-industrial waste: Raw material for textiles,’ proceedings for Sustexmoda EACH-USP, Congresso Internacional de Sustentabilidade em Textile e Moda, Sao Paulo, Brazil, 4-9 Nov.
Ribul, M. (2019) ‘Material Driven Textile Design: Designing Fully Integrated Fabrication and Finishing Processes with Regenerated Cellulose in the Materials Science Laboratory.’ PhD Thesis, University of the Arts London.
Ribul, M. and de la Motte, H. (2018) ‘Material Translation: Validation and Visualization as Transdisciplinary Methods for Textile Design and Materials Science in the Circular Bioeconomy,’ Journal of Textile Design Research and Practice (RFTD), 6(1), pp. 66-88.
Englund, F., Wedin, H., Ribul, M., de la Motte, H. and Östlund, Å (2018) Textile tagging to enable automated sorting and beyond. MISTRA Future Fashion report. Stockholm: RISE Research Institutes of Sweden.
Ribul, M. and de la Motte, H. (2016) ‘The Material Affinity of Design and Science for a Circular Economy’, Proceedings of the Circular Transitions Conference, London, United Kingdom, 23-24 November, pp. 236-248.
Earley, R., Vuletich, C., Goldsworthy, K., Politowicz, K., and Ribul, M. (2015) The Textile Toolbox: New Design Thinking, Materials and Processes for Sustainable Fashion Textiles. MISTRA Future Fashion End of Award Report (2011-2015), Sweden.
Ribul, M., Cosaca Lemos, J. and Whitehead, L. (2015) UAL Futures Learn Report: Co-designing a Digital Creative Toolkit for UAL.
Ribul, M. and de la Motte, H. (2014) Design Possibilities in Regenerated Cellulose Materials. COST, European Cooperation in Science and Technology FP 1205 project report. Borås: RISE Research Institutes of Sweden.
Ribul, M. (2013) Recipes for Material Activism.
External collaborations
EPSRC Peer Review College member.
Guest Editor, Materials (MDPI).
Board Member of the RCA Pure board.
Peer reviewer for Nature Reviews Clean Technology, Journal of Materials Science, Designs, and Journal of Textiles Research and Practice.
Member of the Biomass and Biorefinery Network (BBNet) funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC).
