Elio Caccavale
Elio Caccavale
- Professor of Transdisciplinary Design Innovation
- ORCID
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2105-5022- Professional Title
- Professor
- Job Title
- Professor of Transdisciplinary Design Innovation
- School or Academic Area
- School of Innovation and Technology
- School or Academic Area Supervised for
- School of Innovation and Technology
- E.Caccavale@gsa.ac.uk
- Professional Address
- 167 Renfrew St Glasgow G3 6RQ
- Country
- UK
Biography
Elio Caccavale is Professor of Transdisciplinary Design Innovation. His teaching, scholarship, and research explore the ethical, social, and environmental dimensions of scientific knowledge and technology, with a particular focus on human–non-human relationships.
He is co-author, with Professor Gordon Hush, of Design Beyond the Human: Transdisciplinary Conversations About the Planet (Bloomsbury, 2026) and Digital Design for Planetary Care: The Hidden Environmental Cost of the Digital World (Bloomsbury, forthcoming).
His research has been disseminated internationally through major museums and cultural institutions, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Centre Pompidou in Paris, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, the Science Museum and Royal Institution in London, Triennale Design Museum in Milan, the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, and the Beijing Industrial Design Centre. MoMA has acquired his work for its permanent design collection.
Elio is a Fellow of Advance HE and has reviewed for Bloomsbury, Routledge, The Design Journal, and DEFSA.
Research Interests
Elio’s teaching and research engage with a range of interconnected themes across interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity, science and society, STEAM education, emerging scientific knowledge and technologies, more-than-human design, planetary care, environmental humanities, and environmental education.
Grants
Elio’s research projects have been funded by a range of organisations, including the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, the Biochemical Society, the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Young Academy of Scotland, the Physiological Society, the Wellcome Trust, Arts Council England, and the Spanish Ministry of Culture.
PGR Supervision Interests
Interdisciplinarity, transdisciplinarity, science and society, STEAM education, emerging scientific knowledge and technologies, more-than-human design, planetary conversations, environmental humanities, and environmental education.
Current PGR Students
Marissa Cummings, Caring Object: Trauma-Informed Co-Design of Digital Harm Reduction for People with Experience of Substance Use
Dr Cara Broadley, Lead Supervisor; Professor Elio Caccavale, Second Supervisor.
Teaching
Elio serves as Subject Lead for the MDes Design Innovation and Citizenship programme and contributes more broadly to teaching, administration, and curriculum development across the MDes Design Innovation programmes.
The MDes Design Innovation and Citizenship programme extends beyond organisational structures to consider the impact of design on all living beings and ecological systems, recognising their “citizenship” within a broader ecological understanding of society.
Elio is currently External Examiner for the MA Design for Industry 5.0 course at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London.
Latest Additions
- Caccavale, Elio, Augsten, Andrea and Peukert, Daniela (2026) From Add-On to Co-Creation: Design as an Epistemic and Responsibility-Making Practice in Transdisciplinary Sustainability Research. In: Handbook of Transdisciplinary Sustainability Research CoCreating New Narratives. Edward Elgar Publishing, Cheltenham.
- Caccavale, Elio (2026) Interview with Prof. Elio Caccavale. Interni, April (N.4). pp. 94-97. ISSN 1122-3650
- Caccavale, Elio and Hush, Gordon (2026) Digital Design for Planetary Care: The Hidden Environmental Cost of the Digital World. Bloomsbury, London.
- Caccavale, Elio and Hush, Gordon, eds. (2026) Design Beyond the Human: Transdisciplinary Conversations About the Planet. Bloomsbury, London. ISBN 9781350338067
- Caccavale, Elio (2026) Design Education: Teaching Digital Sufficiency in the Climate Regime. In: Digital Design for Planetary Care: The Hidden Environmental Cost of the Digital World. Bloomsbury, London.
- Mcara, Marianne (2026) Generative AI and the Climate Crisis: materialising AI literacy through design. In: Digital Design for Planetary Care: The Hidden Environmental Cost of the Digital World. Bloomsbury, London.
- Caccavale, Elio (2025) Reinventare la Famiglia - Dagli “Uccellini e le API” alle Tecnologie di Riproduzione Assistita (Art). In: Il Design e Il Suo Doppio. Postmedia Books, Italy, pp. 80-88. ISBN 9798281023498
- Caccavale, Elio (2023) The Animal Farm Simulator. Beijing, China, 28 April - 08 October 2023
- Caccavale, Elio, Johnson, Michael, LeGuennec, Aude, Cunningham, Margaret, Rattray, Zahra, Kerr, Fiona and Henriquez-Mui, Fiona (2022) Addressing Problem of Invisible Chronic Pain. The Scotsman. ISSN 0307-5850
- Caccavale, Elio, Johnson, Michael, Brijbassi, Sonya, Andreazza, Ana C. and Tokatlidis, Kostas (2022) Mitochondria and Us: From Exploration to Global Collective. The Biochemist, 44 (4). pp. 22-28. ISSN 0954-982X
