The 3rd Edition of UBI’s Design Research Days – iD*26 – explores the transformative potential of Design in the face of a new Industrial, Social, and Cultural Revolution, marked by the acceleration of artificial intelligence, robotics, and autonomous systems, as well as by profound climate change and sociocultural shifts. Drawing on the metaphor of “The Mountains’ Tec(h)tonics” it asserts that great changes do not emerge on the surface by chance: they are born from deep forces — technological, social, and environmental — that accumulate slowly until they manifest, powerfully, in the visible world.
Design research is understood as an active agent of these transformations: facilitating, when it translates technological innovation into accessible solutions in service of people and communities; provocative and disruptive, when it questions established models and paves the way for necessary change. By valuing creativity as the driving force of this movement, iD*26 highlights the role of design research in creating innovative responses that are situated and context-sensitive, capable of balancing disruption and responsibility.
The interdependence between technological, economic, social, and environmental systems once again takes center stage as the core theme. Design research is most effective when it thinks in terms of systems — like a mountain, or like the Earth itself — recognizing that every intervention ripples through the entire chain of relationships that sustains it, and that only genuine balance among these dimensions makes true sustainability possible.
Ultimately, iD*26, under the motto “The Mountains’ Tec(h)tonics” is a call to action for researchers, designers, artists, and communities to explore Design as a practice of positive social transformation — capable of reading the deep movements of our time and helping to raise, with the strength and patience of a mountain, futures that are more just, creative, and sustainable.
Course Scientific Committee
Ana Margarida Ferreira, Universidade da Beira Interior (Coordenação)
Aline Monçores, Universidade da Beira Interior
Ernesto Vilar, Universidade da Beira Interior
Francisco Paiva, Universidade da Beira Interior
Joana Casteleiro, Universidade da Beira Interior
Lorenzo Imbesi, Universidade Sapienza de Roma e Associação Cumulus
Lucy Niemeyer, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro
Nicos Souleles, Art and Design E-learning Lab – Design for Social Change, Chipre
Sara Velez, Universidade da Beira Interior
PhD students
Ana Teresa de Oliveira Melo Marques, Universidade da Beira Interior
Armando Correia Alves da Silva, Universidade da Beira Interior
Daniel Teixeira Baldaia, Universidade da Beira Interior
Estrela Filipa Mateus Nunes, Universidade da Beira Interior
Fátima Restolho Veríssimo, Universidade da Beira Interior
Inês Pereira Lopes, Universidade da Beira Interior
João André Calado Bravo, Universidade da Beira Interior
João Braga Santos, Universidade da Beira Interior
João Pedro Ferreira Santos, Universidade da Beira Interior
Joaquim Elias Rijo Martins, Universidade da Beira Interior
Leonel Afonso Rodrigues Amaral, Universidade da Beira Interior
Mariana Costa Beber Figueira, Universidade da Beira Interior
Natacha Ribeiro Pinto, Universidade da Beira Interior
Rui Filipe Soares Salgueiro, Universidade da Beira Interior
Sandro Daniel Gomes Gonçalves, Universidade da Beira Interior
Soraia Maduro, Universidade da Beira Interior
Tábata Paola Avilés Parra, Universidade da Beira Interior
Thais Longaray, Universidade da Beira Interior
Partnerships
Associação Cumulus
Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro e PPGD/ESDI, Brazil
Art and Design E-learning Lab – Design for Social Change, Chipre
Sapienza Universidade de Roma e SDR Sapienza Design Research, Itália
Support
iA* – Investigação em Artes
MUSLAN – Museu de Lanifícios
Departamento de Artes – UBI
Production
Marta Gomes Ferreira – Graphic Image
Sara Constante – Visual Design
Joana Casteleiro – Coordination
Location
MUSLAN – Museu de Lanifícios
Museu de Lanifícios da Universidade da Beira Interior
Real Fábrica Veiga/Centro de Interpretação dos Lanifícios
Calçada do Biribau, s/n (ao Parque da Goldra)
6201-001 Covilhã (Portugal)