Download the Open Call Terms & Guidelines for the full description of the Terms of participation. This section presents a brief summary of the commitments and conditions of participation in the Collaborations for Future program: 

Matching & Kick off: If selected for the program, the applicants’ presence will be required on 1, 8 and 21 October, 2023, at Foundation We Are, located at Torenallee 22-04, 5617 BD, Eindhoven. The matching and kick-off will take place on those dates, and the physical presence for those dates is required for participation in the program. After the matching the designer/architect and scientist pair will get to know each other's work. They will find common areas of interest and formulate a project proposal together, develop the project and present their outcome at the end of the trajectory.

Collaboration period: The collaboration period would run from October 21, 2023 to July 21, 2024. Roughly split in 3 phases of about 3 months: Research, Concept and Materialisation. For the participating scientists, the estimated commitment and availability is around 8-16 hours a month. The designers will devote between 32-64 hours a month, distributed among working sessions and lab visits, as well as for creative research, documentation and investigation. The collaborating pair of designer-scientist will have autonomy in shaping their planning and in choosing their topic, provided that it follows the overarching framework of the working period.

Design Research: Throughout the collaboration period, a design researcher will facilitate, observe and analyse the forms of collaboration that result from the laboratory with the aim of developing tools for new innovative commissioning models. To do this, monthly meet-ups will be organised at the space of Foundation We Are, where the participants will engage in dialogues, workshops and other group activities defined by the design researcher. All participants are required to participate in those sessions and collaborate with the design researcher, to share their process, thoughts and insights from their individual experiences.

Individual conclusive reports: To complete their participation in the program, an individual conclusive report needs to be submitted by each designer. This is the condition needed for the eligibility of the second instalment. This report should include a complete overview and reflection of the collaborative process with the climate scientist, all materials requested by the design researcher, and a documentation of the creative research, design and materialisation phases. Additionally, these description sections will be accompanied by a retrospective timeline of the actual process of participation.

Exhibition and final symposium: From July 1 to September 30, 2024 the final exhibition will be curated and designed to present the outcomes of the 10 collaborations. In October or November 2024, a symposium will be organised in collaboration with Pakhuis de Zwijger, where the outcomes and insights will be presented to a broad audience. The designers are expected to be available and to join the events and the exhibition. More information about this will be provided to the participants in due time.

Designer's fee and budget: For their participation within the project according to the expected commitments, each of the 10 designers, selected and matched with a collaborating scientist, will each receive a grant of €9.000,- excluding VAT. An additional budget for materials of €1.000,- per collaborating pair will be made available as well. Read more about the terms and conditions of payment in Section 3: Terms of Participation, of the Open Call Terms and Guidelines.

Submissions for this open call will be accepted through the official application form, closing at 17:00 CET, on September 11, 2023. All applications will then be checked for eligibility, and the applicants will be informed within a week after the closing of the open call. The eligible applications will be evaluated by an external jury.

Tip: The application form consists of 4 sections, and might not always save the progress. To avoid losing any information in the process, type up the answers to all form fields in a separate document and prepare the documents for upload in advance, and then copy and upload these into the form.

The application submission consists of:

1. Applicant’s Information - professional information and contact details, filled in the designated application form fields.
2. Motivation - A statement of motivation of max. 450 words, A4, PDF, max. 2MB - a succinct and concrete statement of the applicant's motivation to participate in the Collaborations for Future program, including and referring to the following aspects: a vision and position on the role the design disciplines can take in relation to climate research and/or climate change; how you envision the collaboration and process with a climate scientist; a short reflection on what the applicant would like to test, learn or achieve in this process; very briefly explain your preference of the collaborating partner’s institute;
3. At least 2 preferences for a collaborating partner’s institute/department. - you can select that within the application form. Read the information of the scientific partners here or in Appendix 1 of the Open Call Terms & Guidelines.
4. Portfolio / Relevant projects, A4 PDF, max 10 pages, 10MB - IMPORTANT: Files, which are too large, might render the application ineligible. Tip: Platforms, such as smallpdf.com can be helpful in reducing PDF file sizes.
5. Curriculum Vitae, A4 PDF, max 2 pages, max 2MB.
6. Chamber of Commerce extract, A4 PDF, max 1 page, max 1MB - it should not be older than 12 months.
7. Guarantee availability on 1, 8 and 21 October 2023 - for the matching and kick-off events.

The open call team of Foundation We Are will screen the submitted applications for eligibility, based on the conditions outlined in the Collaborations for Future Open Call Guidelines:

• The applicant is an individual professional designer, holding a diploma for a Bachelor or Masters level of education for out of the design disciplines, i.e. architecture, industrial design, product design, etc. OR The applicant is an individual professional designer, practising their profession independently (ZZP), in a collective or in a larger studio, registered at the Dutch Chamber of Commerce.
• The submitted application form is complete and correct, and includes attachments within the requirements defined in the Open Call Guidelines and the application form itself.

The eligible applications will be evaluated by a jury of independent advisors. The jury will evaluate the quality of the content of all eligible applications, on the basis of the criteria defined in the Collaborations for Future Open Call Terms & Guidelines:

• Quality of the expertise and portfolio of the applicant, in relation to the theme;
• Motivation for participating in the project, and positioning;
• The clarity and relevance of the envisioned collaboration with a climate scientist;
• Openness in the process for a cross-practices and interdisciplinary collaboration;

The steering committee of the Collaborations for Future program will make the final decision on the selection and matching, on the basis of the jury’s advisory report. The matches of the designers and scientists will be done per scientific partner, considering as much as possible the preferences submitted by the designers and the expected added value of the collaboration process for both parties. For each scientific partner, the two best evaluated applications will be considered first. The committee will take into account the overall selection of 10 collaborating pairs, with attention to the variety in methods, media and content, to ensure the breadth of the collaborative experiments and the feasibility of the research goals of the Collaborations for Future program. 

The steering committee will review and finalise the matches by September 26th, 2023. The applicants will receive an email communicating the decision by September 28, 2023.