Design research in the twenty-first century has been a fundamental aspect of national and international design agendas, whether in terms of the flurry of activity evident in the early 2000s, including the establishment of the Korean and Hong Kong Design Centres in 2001, the Indian government's endorsement of the country's National Design Policy in 2007 or the publication of a proposed United States National Design Policy in 2009. In terms of the wider higher education research agenda there have also been a number of key national design research initiatives, as in the case of the University of Industrial Arts Helsinki (UIAH) contribution to the shaping of national design research policy exemplified by its role in the policy paper Design 2005! (2000). The design research landscape in the higher education sector in the UK is rather different for a number of reasons, although its national significance has been underlined in the recent national Research Assessment Exercise (RAE 2008, http://submissions.rae.ac.uk/results) in which 70 universities and free-standing specialist institutions submitted their research achievements and ongoing strategies in art and design over a six-year period for peer review. 65 per cent of the University of Brighton's research in art and design was classified as either 'world leading' or 'internationally excellent', confirming Brighton and its Faculty of Arts and Architecture amongst the leading research centres in the UK for art and design, with Research Fortnight ranking the submission second nationally in terms of the volume and quality of research. (For a full picture of Brighton's ongoing research across design, the visual and performing arts and the humanities see http://designresearch.brighton.ac.uk).
