Elio Caccavale is Professor of Transdisciplinary Design Innovation. His teaching practice, scholarship, and research explore the ethical, social, and environmental dimensions of scientific knowledge and emerging technologies, with a particular focus on human-non-human relationships.

He is the co-editor, with Professor Gordon Hush, of the volume Design Beyond the Human: Transdisciplinary Conversations About the Planet (Bloomsbury, 2026). Bringing together contributions from international scholars, designers, and engaged citizens, the book invites readers to consider how design - understood through a more-than-human lens - might reimagine its relationship with capitalism and contemporary ways of living.

His research has been disseminated internationally through major museums and cultural institutions, including the Beijing Industrial Design Centre (Beijing, China), the Centre Pompidou (Paris, France), the Centro Cultural Palacio de La Moneda (Santiago, Chile), the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao (Bilbao, Spain), the Israel Museum (Jerusalem, Israel), the Museum of Contemporary Design and Applied Arts (Lausanne, Switzerland), the Museum of Modern Art (New York, USA), the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts (Taipei, Taiwan), the Royal Institution (London, UK), the Science Museum (London, UK), the Tianjin Art Museum (Tianjin, China), the Triennale Design Museum (Milan, Italy), and the V&A Waterfront (Cape Town, South Africa).

The Museum of Modern Art in New York has acquired his work for its permanent design collection, recognising its originality, significance, and contribution to practice-based design research.

His previous academic roles include Associate and Visiting Lectureships at Central Saint Martins (2003-2007), the Royal College of Art (2005-2011), and London Metropolitan University (2005-2006); Lecturer and Programme Lead at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design (2009-2011); and Visiting Technical Lecturer at the Architectural Association (2003-2005). He has also held research appointments as Visiting Research Fellow at Imperial College London’s Institute of Biomedical Engineering and at the University of Reading’s Cybernetics Department (both 2007-2009), and as Design Researcher at Newcastle University’s Policy, Ethics, and Life Sciences Research Centre (2007-2008). In addition, Elio served as Honorary Professor at Hubei University of Technology, China (2011-2016), and Visiting Professor at the Polytechnic University of Milan, Italy (2012–2014).

Elio has served as a peer reviewer for numerous conferences, symposiums, and publishers. Most recently, he has reviewed for Bloomsbury, Routledge, The Design Journal, and the Design Education Forum of Southern Africa (DEFSA) 2025 Conference.

Elio is a Fellow of Advance HE (FHEA).