https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2105-5022
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 the evolving field of More-than-Human Design.
He is the co-editor, with Professor Gordon Hush, of the forthcoming 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 Industrial Design Centre (Beijing), the Centro Cultural Palacio de La Moneda (Santiago Chile), Centre Pompidou (Paris), the Guggenheim Museum (Bilbao), the Israel Museum (Jerusalem), the Museum of Contemporary Design and Applied Arts (Lausanne), the Museum of Modern Art (New York), the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts (Taipei), the Royal Institution (London), the Science Museum (London), the Triennale Design Museum (Milan), and the V&A Waterfront (Cape Town). 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).
Elio’s teaching and research engage with a range of interconnected themes, including interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity, science and society, STEAM education, emerging scientific knowledge and technologies, more-than-human design, planetary conversations, environmental humanities, and environmental education.
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.
Interdisciplinarity, transdisciplinarity, science and society, STEAM education, emerging scientific knowledge and technologies, more-than-human design, planetary conversations, environmental education, and environmental humanities.
Marissa Cummings, Caring Object: Trauma-Informed Co-Design of Digital Harm Reduction for People With Experience of Substance Use (Dr Cara Broadely - Lead Supervisor; Prof. Elio Caccavale - 2nd Supervisor).
Elio serves as Subject Lead for the MDes Design Innovation and Citizenship programme and contributes more broadly to teaching and administration across the MDes Design Innovation programmes.
The MDes Design and Innovation 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, more ecological understanding of society.
Elio is currently the External Examiner for the MA Design for Industry 5.0 Course at Central Saint Martins, UAL.
