Update you browser

For the best experience, we recommend you update your browser. Visit our accessibility page for a list of supported browsers. Alternatively, you can continue using your current browser by closing this message.

Close
Menu Search
Programme finder
Research projects
Start-up companies
The Robotics Hangar

Research centres, labs and groups

The Robotics Hangar, Photo: © Iwan Baan

The College's research centres, labs and groups address some of the major challenges facing society today: ageing populations, sustainability, the future of mobility and the adoption of new technologies. We work with partners from around the world to establish new collaborative research partnerships with human-centred, design-led approaches at their heart.

Our research centres

Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design Team
Research Centre

Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design

The Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design is a global leader in inclusive design and works with government, business, academia and the third sector to conduct research and knowledge exchange projects.
Intelligent Mobility Design Centre
Research Centre

Intelligent Mobility Design Centre

The Intelligent Mobility Design Centre leads research at the intersection of people, mobility and technology within a complex and changing urban and global environment.
Materials Science Lab
Research Centre

Centre for Materials Science & Culture

Research in the Centre for Materials Science & Culture focuses on the invention and the experience of materials to address real world challenges, specifically environmental sustainability, and human health and wellbeing.

CLIMAVORE x Jameel at RCA

This research initiative reimagines foodways for drylands and wetlands, advancing ecological networks to produce new knowledge and action towards spatial justice.

Visit CLIMAVORE x Jameel at RCA
Water Buffalo Commons, CLIMAVORE x Jameel at RCA, 2023-ongoing. Water buffalo roam and wallow through abandoned coal mines in the postindustrial wetlands of Istanbul, creating channels in the mud for fish and microbial life to travel between different poo

Labs and research groups

Housing Standardisation, Sam Jacoby, 2024. Image by Lucia Alonso
Research Lab

Intergenerational Design Lab

The Intergenerational Design Lab researches design practices, processes, and reasoning through intergenerational perspectives on time, generational continuity, and generational change.
RCA Robotics Lab
Research Lab

RCA Robotics Laboratory

Combining creative techniques, mechanisms and functions from nature and art, and approaches from the experimental sciences, the Robotics Laboratory develops new robotic technologies enhancing access, safety and performance in a wide range of industrial applications.
Maclura cochinchinensis (cockspur thorn) and sample of silk dyed using heartwood
Research Lab

Sustainable Practices in the Anthropocene Research Lab

The Sustainable Practices in the Anthropocene Lab undertakes research, development, and engagement concerning manual making in the contemporary world, alongside projects that explore issues around the extraction, harvesting, processing, trading, and evaluation of raw materials used by craft and applied arts practitioners.
Friction (2026) Designer: Neville Brody
Research Group

Friction Research Group

Friction Research Group seeks to understand ways in which practitioners and researchers might explore, experiment with and critically evaluate ‘friction’ within graphic design and communication practices.
Symbiotic Intelligence
Research Group

Immersive Acts Research Group

Optimising immersive technologies as compelling mediums for communication, Immersive Acts challenges conventional approaches to XR, VR, AR, and MR by asking how they can equip communities to preserve their histories and prepare for climate futures.
Code Ecologies: Building cultural legitimacy in sustainability transitions. Laura Santamaria, 2026.
Research Group

Making Publics Research Group

Making Publics examines how media, knowledge and technologies shape power relations, and designs alternatives for more open, plural, democratic societies.
Moon Palace, Leeds, UK, Ivan Morison
Research Group

Sites & Situations Research Group

Sites & Situations considers physical territories and political contexts through contemporary art practice and interdisciplinary exchange.
'Dare Mighty Things'. 2001-2022. 6m x 6m. Merinio wool, paracords, ballast. Installation
Research Group

_Space Research Group

The _Space group operates at the intersection of art and aerospace, working towards the democratisation of space exploration by asserting the role of the arts beyond terrestrial sites and traditions.
No Such Thing as Empty Space, Matt Lewis
Research Group

Voicing Sound Research Group

Voicing Sound is a research community whose work engages with socio-politics, architecture, history and communication of and through sound and listening.

Additional Research Groups

Additional research groups at the RCA include:

Creative Intelligence Exchange Group

Leads: Dr Sina Sareh and Dr Elif Ozden Yenigun

The Creative Intelligence Exchange Group is a platform for cross-disciplinary collaboration and innovation at the convergence of art, design, robotics, and physical artificial intelligence.

Hosted by the RCA Robotics Laboratory, the group positions intelligence itself as a creative material – something to be designed, performed, and reflected upon – linking technical research with design-led and artistic exploration.