In addition to research that takes place across the Schools of Architecture, Arts & Humanities, Communication and Design, these research centres address some of the major challenges facing society today: material science, a healthy ageing society, clean growth, and the future of mobility.

Building on the success of the RCA’s existing research centres – the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design and the HELIX Centre  – the Intelligent Mobility Design Centre was established in 2016, and the Burberry Material Futures Research Group (the first part of our Material Science Research Centre) was launched in 2017. The College is also investing in interdisciplinary collaborations in fields including artificial intelligence, digital visualisation and simulation, and design-led robotics, and will in due course launch new centres in Computer Science and in Drawing.

By 2021 all of the research centres will be housed in the RCA’s new state-of-the art building in its Battersea campus, designed by Herzog & de Meuron. The new building will include a dedicated research hub, as well as housing InnovationRCA, the College’s highly successful business incubator. The research centres will work with partners from around the world – from business and industry, to charities, governments and NGOs and other universities, to establish new collaborative research partnerships with human-centred, design-led approaches at their heart.