We live in a time when social and environmental challenges demand action — and fast. But what if, in our rush to respond, we are overlooking something essential: the time it takes for good ideas to become better ones? The increasing number of social and environmental issues and crises our world is facing has generated a sense of urgency and a need for fast problem solving. This has led to developing different methods such as hackathons and design jams to speed up the innovation process. While these formats can accelerate innovation, research shows that many ideas become orphans and are never implemented.

The DESIS Lab at NOVA School of Business and Economics in partnership with the DESIS Lab at Faculty of Architecture University of Lisbon (FAUL) have been exploring a different possibility. What if, rather than generating new ideas, a design jam could give existing ideas the time, attention and diverse perspectives they need to develop? How might we leverage the design process and the temporal pace of design jams to support teams trying to tackle social and environmental issues? To explore this question, we developed our first Design Jam for Impact in April 2022 — creating a safe and collaborative environment where project teams could pause, explore their initiatives from new angles and engage with diverse perspectives. Since then, we have run four more Design Jams for Impact, bringing together more than 150 participants and supporting 26 projects.

An invitation to collaboratively refine ideas

For the last four years, we have co-organised the Design Jam for Impact as a one-day event designed to help refine and strengthen projects addressing social and environmental challenges. Rather than generating entirely new ideas as traditional design jams often do, the jam supports initiatives already in development. It creates space for critical reflection, creative input, and new perspectives that may reveal hidden obstacles or opportunities.

Drawing on our programs and connections with organizations across the ecosystem, we invite five to six projects developed by students or local social innovators and entrepreneurs. Some project teams join because they feel ‘stuck’, others simply want fresh insight. During our first design jam, we noticed one participant, a design professional, stepped into an informal mentor role. She really helped the other participants navigate the process and collaborate. The following year, we invited her to join us as a mentor along with four others with backgrounds in UX, fashion, service design, community management, and with experience in social innovation and sustainability. We have also seen participants return for a second or third jam, telling us that they value the experience, the sense of community and the opportunity to collaborate.

The structure draws on a revisited version of the design thinking process, using practical tools such as mapping, future scenarios and storytelling to break down innovation into concrete dimensions for reflection and ideation. These activities help participants generate critical and fresh perspectives on projects that might otherwise remain hidden from the teams themselves. Activities are timed and have a specific focus for each phase. The temporal structure creates a generative tension, while the space and materials provide a safe environment for experimentation.

Each project is matched with a mentor for the whole day. Participants are grouped at the beginning of the day and move together to work with three different projects — one for each phase. This format allows participants to work on multiple projects, and project teams to connect with diverse individuals. Keeping the same mentor for a project, and the same team of participants working together across the day, provides a sense of stability and safety.

Learning new skills and embracing fresh mindsets

Beyond developing skills in multidisciplinary communication, collaborative ideation and prototyping, participants also honed their use of tools such as journey maps, scenarios and storytelling, while developing new ways of thinking.

“The feedback we got is very valuable to the project. In particular, the point about building a story is really interesting and something we never really thought about, as we have previously focused on describing the business model and the product when presenting, rather than building up a story around the problem and our solution,” mentioned a participating NOVA SBE student

Another participant from FAUL reflected on how the experience challenged disciplinary assumptions: “As design students, we don’t usually think about how to make the idea viable. We never think about business models. The questions and feedback we receive today force us to think of our idea in a different way. We think it will help us implement it.”

For participants, the opportunity to work directly with real projects and their founders was also a source of inspiration: “It was really interesting to work with actual projects, to be able to be part of the project development directly with the founders. And to use different tools and address different issues for different projects.”

Seeding and nurturing relationships

Our design jams also foster meaningful connections between participants, mentors, and DESIS Labs. Collaborations emerge between mentors and participants, across projects and with partners in the wider ecosystem. While the Design Jam for Impact is an annual event, we have seen participants return or join because a friend participated. Some people have joined first as participants or with a project and have become so engaged that we later invited them to return as mentors. A participant told us: “I learned about frameworks and worked with people from different backgrounds to achieve a common goal. I loved the initiative and the experience and want to come back next year.”

Projects themselves also evolve. Some have gone on to become ventures or have been implemented further:

• a local entrepreneur with a PhD in biology created a venture using mycelium to create new packaging materials

• a student-led initiative to support young professionals to become change makers is now a social enterprise in Germany

• a student-led initiative using craft to support the inclusion of migrant women, and has grown into a cooperative with migrant women at its core

• the Community Garden @ Nova SBE has continued to develop and is now moving towards a more institutionalized phase.

Over the years, we have tried to maintain connections with projects and support them beyond our design jams. This year, we decided to be more intentional about staying connected, reaching out to participants after the jam to explore ways of remaining involved. This is one of our goals for the coming years. Several participants over the years, particularly this year, expressed a desire to be part of a community. Interestingly this desire was shared by participants, project leads and mentors.

“I wonder how we can track the results of our collaboration with the project? It would be great to know if something that we co-created / suggested helped the teams and there were some (real) outcomes,” a participant told us. A mentor mentioned: “It would be great if we could have follow up sessions with the projects or other. I also wonder if these kinds of sessions could happen every quarter and create support for a lot more projects.”

What we’ve learned about making collaboration work

Innovation is a marathon, not a sprint. It is therefore essential to create the space for people to slow down, explore and build relationships. The Design Jam for Impact is more than just bringing people together, squeezing activities into a short timeframe, or applying a design thinking process. It is about mindfully curating an experience where collaboration between different actors is nurtured through a rhythm and roles.

These are some of the key lessons we have taken from the experience:

Select projects and set expectations
Choose projects based not only on their potential, but also on their openness to collaboration and willingness to receive feedback and be exposed to fresh perspectives. Make sure participants understand that the purpose is exploration and collaboration, rather than fixing their problems.

Balance structure and openness
Provide enough structure to shape interactions and create some outcomes, while leaving people with the freedom to interpret, experiment and explore unexpected directions.

Create opportunities for interactions
Structure the day so that people get to know each other — for example, by keeping teams together and assigning a mentor to each team — while also creating opportunities to connect with others through project rotations and informal interactions during breaks.

Facilitate meaningful conversations
Bring in mentors whose specific expertise is valuable, but who can also nudge collaboration and keep conversations on track.

Nurture a community
Recognise that interactions need time to turn into relationships.. Provide ways for people to stay connected, share updates and continue supporting each other after the event

Design jams are often seen — either praised or criticized — as accelerated forms of innovation, where new ideas are generated fast. There is value in bringing diverse perspectives, and tapping into the intensity and energy that a short timeframe can create. But to allow ideas to really grow and to leverage the power of collaboration, we need to create spaces that are also about pausing — so that new possibilities can emerge, alternatives can be considered, and relationships can spark.

This post was co-authored by ERA Chair in Social Innovation Anne-Laure Fayard and designer, design researcher and lecturer Ines Veiga

Through conversations with social activists and innovators who work in and with their communities, the Design Thinking Roundtable: Tales of the Field podcast explores how design can create change and social impact. What if the street itself could become a place for community — not through permanent infrastructure, but through small, nimble interventions that invite people to stop, play, read, cool down and connect? That’s the thinking behind Street Lab, a New York nonprofit creating pop-up experiences and modular kits that activate public space and test new possibilities for the urban environment.

In this episode of Tales of the Field, we hear from Street Lab co-founder and executive director Leslie Davol and design lead Hannah Berkin-Harper about what they have learned from bringing these ideas into neighbourhoods across New York City. Their work offers an intriguing perspective on how temporary interventions can respond to changing needs, engage communities and reveal possibilities for longer-term change.

From reading rooms to cooling stations, Street Lab’s projects are designed to be portable, adaptable and — importantly — shaped through use. The conversation takes us into their iterative design process and explores what happens when we treat the street not simply as infrastructure, but as a space for connection, experimentation and belonging.

“There was that sense of wanting to open up the city to new things. Don’t necessarily call them permanent, or solutions that are fixed – but you experiment and you open up possibilities.”
— Leslie Davol, co-founder and executive director of Street Lab

Born in Johannesburg just one day before Nelson Mandela became South Africa’s first democratically elected president, Gabriela Faria entered the world at a moment that came to symbolise the possibility of hope, freedom, and profound change. Raised in Portugal, she has carried that same belief in the power of change into her work as the founder and CEO of the Lisbon Project, a non-profit building a community where migrants and refugees can belong, contribute, and thrive. Driven by a passion for inspiring agency in others and raising leaders, Gabriela believes that lasting change begins when people recognise the influence they have and feel empowered to act.

What first drew you to start the Lisbon Project?

After graduating university where I studied politics and international relations, I spent a summer in Portugal returning to my family after living abroad and that summer I started meeting migrants and refugees from all over the world. It was through authentic relationships and genuine curiosity that I started noticing patterns in the challenges of integration. But the greatest challenge I identified was the lack of community and a dormancy in civil society. Lisbon Project emerged from a desire to mobilise community, to bring people together and create a place of belonging, opportunity and dignity.

How has the Lisbon Project developed over time?

What began as a focus on one individual or family at a time, is now a national vision of a country that needs to live out its own best values. Today my vision is much wider, wanting to create systemic change that has influence in the job market, the economy, healthcare, education and every sphere of society. Immigration is not a siloed topic, it is not just a political debate, it is the everyday lives of millions of people that make up the Portugal we love. Today we are passionate about innovation and building ecosystems that have an impact beyond us. All the while, we pour all of our care on each person that walks through our doors.

Tell us about your collaboration with the ERA Chair in Social Innovation

Our collaboration began with the Impact Makers’ course in the fall of 2022 followed by the Design Thinking course, which became the foundation of a partnership that has grown into so many ideas and opportunities. Anne-Laure isn’t just a woman of words—she’s dedicated to real-world impact. These courses have equipped students to think differently about immigration and about people in general, while opening doors for our migrant community. They’ve led to job opportunities at Hospital da Luz, paid consulting roles within the courses themselves, and new connections with NOVA School of Business and Economics. Through the ERA Chair, we’ve also built partnerships with new projects that have led to funded collaborations such as Homelore. Along the way, the students’ ideas have also helped shape the Lisbon Project’s services and activities.

Lisbon Project community members participating in Homelore exhibition

What have you found successful, surprising and challenging in this collaboration?

What’s worked so well is that the courses tackle challenges we as an organization help identify as priorities, so the work stays grounded and relevant. I love hearing from students afterward — about how their awareness shifted, how silent discrimination got challenged in their thinking. Having our community members compensated as consultants from the very start has been so empowering. It honours their expertise and sets a respectful relationship right from the start. The challenge is that Lisbon Project staff don’t always have the time to share everything we’ve tried, tested, and learned, or the real constraints behind some ideas. As a result, students don’t always have the full context to build on. What I appreciate most is Anne-Laure’s dedication. Even one more person getting a job genuinely matters to her, and that authenticity shapes a relationship—and a way of working—that is truly impact-first, leading to so many opportunities.

What is the role and value of this kind of collaboration across sectors in tackling complex social issues like immigration and inclusion?

Like I mentioned above, immigration isn’t a single-sector issue like education or healthcare — it touches every sphere of society. When people come to Portugal, they arrive as whole people, ready to both give and receive. That’s why cross-sector collaboration matters so much: it brings the right questions, the right listening, and diverse voices into the room to build solutions that are sustainable and genuinely impactful. It also creates a shared sense of boldness and responsibility, allowing us to view challenges from different angles and explore new ideas to achieve different outcomes. Change comes when we dare to do things differently — and that is best done in partnership.

What are your hopes and dreams for the future of the Lisbon Project?

Our dream is for Lisbon Project to become a reference point for migrant inclusion in Portugal, and for Portugal to become a reference point for migrant inclusion in Europe and beyond. In the coming years, we hope to scale beyond Lisbon, extending our reach to other cities where we can build communities that bring together migrants, locals, and refugees — while strengthening cross-sector collaborations that create impact across different spheres of society. Our dream is to intentionally build social cohesion through strategic, human-centred programmes that truly see individuals for their intrinsic value and empower them to both contribute and receive as we shape the future side by side.

What words of advice would you give to those starting out in social innovation looking to support migrants and refugees?

Bring passion and courage to make change — but pair them with humility, and never work alone. Understand what others have already tried, what has worked and what hasn’t, find the real gaps, and ask how you can support rather than compete. Dream big enough to impact millions, but stay committed in your heart to each person in front of you — with care, love, and compassion. I carry forward the advice I was given early on: keep a strong mind, but a soft heart throughout the entire journey.

Explore how Lisbon project collaborated with the ERA Chair in 2025: Innovation through inclusion: migrants and students co-design change and again in 2026: Experts by experience: migrant consultants co-design with students

Left to right: Natalia da Luz, Olena Perekhodchenko , Anne-Laure Fayard, Lah Humuani Olawunmi, Roquia Bakhshi, Beatriz Bento

What happens when people with lived experience become co-designers rather than case studies? This spring, in Professor Anne-Laure Fayard’s Design Thinking for Social Innovation course, 30 students from 13 nationalities worked alongside 3 migrant women – not as subjects of study, but as paid consultants bringing invaluable expertise. Unlike typical courses where external experts make brief appearances, the consultants collaborated with students throughout the semester, receiving both payment and a participation certificate from the ERA Chair in Social Innovation. Together the students and consultants explored the question: How might we reimagine narratives about migration in order to foster dialogue and create collective futures? Here, they reflect on the experience and the value of designing with migrants, not for them.

Olena Perekhodchenko is from Ukraine, where she lived in Kyiv before moving to Portugal in 2022 following the start of the war, seeking safety and stability for her child. With a background in project management, EU integration and organisational development, she is motivated by a deep connection to her ancestors, the support she feels from previous generations, and the kindness she sees in others.

Roqia Bakhshi is from Afghanistan and came to Portugal in 2023 through a scholarship to pursue her Master’s degree. With a background in counselling, health psychology and neuropsychology, she is motivated by hope, family, peace and making a difference in the lives of others.

Lah Humuani Olawunmi is from Nigeria and came to Portugal in 2024 seeking educational opportunities and a secure future for her family. A lawyer with over 15 years of experience in the finance industry, she is motivated by setting goals, achieving them and creating positive progress in all areas of her life.

Tell us about your experience participating on the Design Thinking for Social Innovation course

Olena I experienced some difficulty memorising the abbreviation for the course: DT4SI! (Design Thinking For Social Innovation) But seriously – I felt welcomed by the students and, with the support of Anne-Laure and Beatriz, I felt empowered to contribute, learn and use my own experience to advise the student teams throughout their design journeys. My only regret is that those four months flew by in the blink of an eye.

Roquia The course was both challenging and rewarding. As a consultant, I shared my experience with students while learning from them. As a refugee, reflecting on difficult life experiences was sometimes challenging, but it had a practical outcome in that it helped me connect my personal journey as a refugee with social innovation and positive change.

Lah My experience was awesome. In this role I met with students who welcomed me warmly and were ready to share their knowledge and skills. They drew on my knowledge and experience which helped shift their perspectives on immigration. We were learning and unlearning together.

Lah Humuani Olawunmi sharing migrant insights with student

What difference do you think your perspectives made on the student’s projects?

Olena I gather that my story helped students reflect on the perceived distance between ‘us’ and ‘them.’ When you talk to someone who is a migrant or refugee, but who has had a similar education, lifestyle, interests, professional experiences and skills to your own, is there really such a big difference between you and them? I also think for some students that it was an eye-opening and humbling experience that made them reflect on the unpredictability of life.

Roquia My perspective helped students recognize the potential and capacities of people, rather than focusing only on their challenges. It also encouraged them to think about practical, sustainable, and long-term solutions for social issues.

Lah I felt that my lived experience and perspective went a long way in helping students create solutions that went beyond the common and often uninformed narratives that many people have about migrants.

How did being involved make you feel and what did you learn along the way?

Olena Being involved was the most valuable part of the experience because it was exactly what I needed. Rather than observing from the sidelines or only being involved occasionally, I felt part of a collective effort, and I learnt that the journey of creating, designing and prototyping is joyful and valuable in itself.

Roqia I felt empowered, happy, confident, valued, and motivated throughout the experience. I also learned the importance of collaboration and how small actions can contribute to meaningful change.

Lah I learnt a lot through interacting with the students, which changed some of my perceptions about what people think of us as migrants. Over time, it also made me feel more welcome in Portugal than I had before.

Design Thinking for Social Innovation students and migrant consultants with their project

What are your hopes and dreams for the future of the projects you consulted on?

Olena I wouldn’t expect all the student teams to continue their activities, as transforming these ideas into sustainable social projects would require fundraising, institutional support and ongoing commitment, which can be difficult alongside the demands of studies and exams. My hope is that these projects find “godmothers and godfathers” — NGOs, student bodies, academic groups, socially engaged businesses or individuals — who can provide the support, resources and continuity needed to welcome these ideas into the wider family of migrant support initiatives and help them grow.

Roqia I hope the students continue developing their work beyond the course and that universities, organizations, and NGOs support these projects. I also hope that in the future, they involve more organizations and groups working with refugees to reduce isolation and help apply these ideas in the real world.

Lah I hope the projects will continue and reach migrants who are facing these challenges, so that they can connect, integrate and get their families settled. Knowing how and where to access the necessary support in a timely way is crucial to the integration of migrants into local communities.

What advice would you give to other students and organisations working on challenges faced by migrants and refugees?

Olena I think the most important thing is to change the perspective — not to create projects for migrants, but with them. While implementing projects and organising activities for migrants and refugees is important, involving them in the planning and delivery processes creates more meaningful outcomes in terms of integration, agency and their sense of fulfilment and belonging.

Roqia Working with and for refugees requires a multi-sector approach, as no single organization can address these challenges alone. Collaboration between organizations is essential. It is also important to really listen to refugees — not only focusing on their challenges or weaknesses, but also recognizing their strengths, capacities, and potential.

Lah The advice I would give is to find practical, achievable solutions for each immigrant while treating every case with care and sensitivity. By understanding each person’s background and supporting their growth in their new country, organisations can help people move forward with confidence and find achievable solutions.

Explore how the 2025 course took a similar approach: Innovation through inclusion: migrants and students co-design change

Through conversations with passionate and mindful designers, The Design Thinking Roundtable explores how design can create change and social impact. In this episode, Tanya Bhandari — then Design Director at YLabs and former design lead at UNICEF’s Office of Innovation — reflects on her journey from communication design in India to leading multidisciplinary design teams working across Africa and beyond. Drawing on projects focused on youth mental health, sexual and reproductive health, and humanitarian innovation, Tanya explores how design can move beyond creating solutions for communities toward creating them with communities. Throughout the conversation, she reinforces that meaningful social impact depends on shifting power, recognizing lived experience as expertise, and ensuring that the people most affected by a problem actively shape its solutions.

A central theme of the discussion is participatory design, not as a single workshop or consultation exercise, but as an ongoing commitment woven through every stage of the design process. Tanya shares how YLabs works alongside young people as designers, researchers, facilitators, and decision-makers, compensating them for their expertise and involving them from initial research through prototyping and implementation.

“There needs to be a moment of almost humbling of designers: we don’t know everything… You’re not designing for yourself. You’re designing for someone else. So the decisions shouldn’t be yours alone. They should be driven by young people, or whoever the audience of focus may be.”

In closing, Tanya reflects on the evolving role of the designer in complex social systems. Rather than positioning designers as experts with the right answers, she describes their role as one of sense-making, facilitation, and partnership. Working across cultures requires humility, trust in local teams, and the willingness to let evidence from communities reshape donor expectations and project goals. For Tanya, genuinely human-centered design requires more than empathy. It demands a shift in mindset, where designers set aside their own assumptions, redistribute decision-making, and recognize that lasting change comes when communities become the authors of the systems intended to serve them.

What happens when a university looks beyond its campus as a place for learning and starts treating it as a living laboratory for social innovation? This conversation explores the remarkable evolution of the DESIS Community Garden at Nova School of Business and Economics, from a student-led Master’s project into a thriving space where education, sustainability and community come together. More than simply growing food, the garden has become a place where ideas are tested, relationships are built and people from different backgrounds discover what they can create together.

Throughout the discussion, contributors reflect on the philosophy of permaculture and the importance of designing with people rather than for them. They describe how listening, inviting participation and knowing when to step back have helped the garden evolve organically, allowing neighbours, students, staff and volunteers to shape its future collectively. Along the way, the conversation touches on environmental stewardship, public health, experiential learning and the powerful role shared spaces can play in strengthening communities.

“It’s not just an idea, it’s not just a theory. Our biggest achievement is that we really managed to make it happen — after thinking collectively about what a place like this can be.” — João Martins, Community Garden Consultant

Perhaps the most inspiring message is that meaningful social innovation doesn’t begin with grand plans. It begins with creating the conditions for people to connect, contribute and care. The Community Garden stands as a reminder that when universities embrace collaboration beyond the classroom, they can become catalysts for lasting change, nurturing not only plants but healthier, more resilient communities.

Our DESIS Spring 2026 Social Innovator Fellow Yuliia Barash is an educator, community builder, and social initiative organizer based in Lisbon, Portugal. Over the past decade, she has worked in education, community development, and social support roles across Ukraine, Finland, and Portugal. Her experience includes designing educational programs, organizing family and community events, and supporting children’s emotional and social development. Her work focuses on building supportive environments for families, strengthening migrant communities, and creating initiatives that combine education, creativity, and social integration.

What first drew you to get involved in social innovation?

My drive emerged from a personal need to transform the migration experience into a tool for community development. I sought not only to preserve our cultural identity but also to find a path for active integration into a new society through meaningful action. My goal became creating events that simultaneously support both nature and people, uniting us with the local community through shared responsibility.

Tell us about your work in education, community development, and social support

I founded TEPLO, a family community in Lisbon that has become a vital support network for Ukrainians through education and active leisure. Teplo means warmth in Ukrainian. We developed a children’s center as a core branch of the project, where we assist children with educational needs while providing psychological support to parents. To foster community development, we organize numerous events, such as Eco-Week, which includes beach clean-ups, factory visits, and collaborative workshops with international communities — helping families build new friendships and grow together in a new environment.

Tell us about your role as a DESIS Fellow Social Innovator

As a DESIS Fellow, I was invited to participate in workshops, connect with mentors and provided with some funding to support the evolution of my social initiatives from community building to systemic environmental projects. The first phase of my fellowship focused on establishing TEPLO, emphasizing social support and family education. Subsequent support allowed me to expand my scope and launch the Eco-Bridge project, where I coordinate environmental actions and workshops aimed at integrating our community into Portuguese society.

How has DESIS Lab and the ERA Chair in Social Innovation enhanced your journey?

The program helped me bridge gaps in my theoretical knowledge, as I previously acted mostly based on intuition and practice. A major contribution came from numerous meetings with different mentors, who helped me focus on specific tasks and refine my project strategy. Additionally, participating in the program provided me with many valuable professional connections, which expanded my opportunities for collaboration and gave me a clear understanding of how to professionally develop a community in Portugal.

Tell us about what you have found successful, surprising, and challenging along your journey.

My main success is the creation of a living ecosystem: from the Dimkids educational program, where children attend comprehensive Saturday classes, to our vocal group and workshops led by our own artisans. I am pleasantly surprised by how united and open people are. It turned out they were in critical need of a space for simple human connection and exchange. The biggest challenge is the financial aspect, as launching so many ideas requires significant resources, which can lead to emotional exhaustion — though the gratitude of the community always provides powerful motivation to keep moving forward.

What are your hopes for the future?

My immediate goal is to officially register TEPLO with the Portuguese system to fully engage with government authorities and ensure the project’s sustainable development. I aim to design a social adaptation model that can be scaled to support not only Ukrainians but all foreigners in Portugal. Specifically, I plan to launch programs for mastering new professional skills to help people integrate faster into the market and become financially independent.

What words of advice would you give to those starting out in social innovation?

My main advice is not to wait for the perfect moment but to start small, based on the actual needs of the people around you. Seek out like-minded individuals and do not hesitate to ask for mentorship — an outside perspective and theoretical framework help avoid many mistakes. Remember: even when you feel exhausted, the energy of grateful people — those you’ve helped find friends or a new vocation — will always return to you multiplied.

Through conversations with passionate and mindful designers,the Design Thinking Roundtable podcast explores how design can create change and social impact. In this episode, Hanieh Khosroshahi — an independent design consultant, researcher, community organizer working in pursuit of people and the planet. Her work spans multiple sectors from international development and public health to women’s rights and technologies. She shares the journey that took her from literature, visual arts, and journalism into human-centred design, and ultimately toward work at the intersection of design, social justice, and collective liberation. Drawing on experiences across Canada, Rwanda, Tanzania, Nepal, and Afghanistan, Hanieh reflects on how her early frustrations with corporate UX design led her to seek more participatory, community-led approaches that center care, equity, and lived experience.

A central theme of the conversation is Hanieh’s commitment to decolonizing design practice. Moving beyond the use of terms like participatory, feminist, and trauma-informed as project buzzwords, she explores what it means to embed these values into the way teams work, make decisions, and relate to one another. Through examples from her work with women’s rights activists in Afghanistan and youth-led health initiatives in Rwanda, Hanieh illustrates how timelines, power dynamics, recruitment processes, and decision-making structures can either reinforce existing systems or create space for more equitable participation and meaningful change.

The conversation also explores Hanieh’s concept of designing for liberation, a practice rooted in imagination, community, and collective responsibility. For Hanieh, design is not simply a method for solving problems but a form of advocacy and activism — one that challenges dominant systems, nurtures care and resilience, and creates the conditions for communities to shape their own futures.

Since the last week of February, every Thursday our Community Garden at Nova School of Business and Economics has been opening its ‘gates’ for our Open Garden days. And yes, we can talk about numbers:

• 15 sessions hosted

• 500+ student registrations to participate

• 250 students that went on to be involved

• 4 expert workshops

• 150+ hours planting, watering, building, harvesting, and sharing

Numbers matter. They help us understand reach and participation. But when we think about impact, we believe questions go deeper than just counting attendance:

• What does it mean when a student keeps coming back, week after week?

• What does it mean when people from different disciplines such as economics, management, and finance meet each other through the garden?

• What does it mean when students not only participate, but begin proposing ideas, building projects, and shaping the space together?

Some forms of impact are direct. Some are indirect. And some are diffuse — as we explored in Impact Beyond Outputs — challenging to measure immediately, but meaningful nonetheless.

Maybe the impact is in learning patience while watching something grow. Maybe it is in reconnecting with nature in the middle of academic pressure. Maybe it is in discovering that collaboration can also happen with soil, plants, and care. Maybe it is simply in creating a memory students will carry with them long after graduation.

By offering a green space for free experimentation and land care plus different themed workshops to students, we are creating opportunities for them to discover other parts of themselves beyond their studies. To complement technical education with experiences that reconnect us with being human, with community, and with nature. In a school focused on economics, management, and finance, we believe spaces like this matter too.

Sometimes impact begins quietly, with people gathering around something alive and deciding to help it grow together.

Driven by curiosity and a passion for solving complex challenges, Johanna Pfeffer has built an interdisciplinary path combining business and design. Currently based in Lucerne, she has lived, worked and studied across Europe while exploring how design can create meaningful social and systemic change. Her Master’s thesis at Nova School of Business and Economics led to the creation of our community garden that continues to thrive today — offering a powerful example of how ideas can evolve into lasting, community-led impact. In this conversation, she reflects on the journey behind the project, the realities of creating change and how design has a vital role to play in shaping more sustainable futures.

Tell us about your Master’s and community garden initiative at NOVA

After working in communication design agencies, I felt drawn to explore more of the world and how businesses truly function, leading me to pursue my Master’s in Management at Nova SBE (2022-2023). A turning point came during Anne-Laure Fayard’s Design Thinking for Social Innovation course, which opened my eyes to the power of design to create real world impact beyond aesthetics. The community garden initiative became the perfect application of everything I’d learned — a hands-on Master’s thesis project where I brought together creativity, strategy, and collaboration to create a sustainable space that people actively use today.

What first drew you to pursue this project?

I’ve always been passionate about plants and the role they play in wellbeing and urban life. When Anne-Laure introduced the idea of a community garden at Nova SBE, I felt a strong intrinsic motivation to explore its potential. Although the concept had been discussed for years, it had never been implemented due to a lack of structure, which I saw as an opportunity to turn it into something tangible.

How has the project played out?

My research confirmed a strong interest in a community garden at Nova SBE, with far more students and local residents eager to participate than I had expected. I initiated the project by running workshops and aligning stakeholders, as well as developing a hybrid governance model comprising ‘guardians’ and an advisory board. I then handed the project over to the DESIS Lab, ensuring that key infrastructure, such as a ramp and water access, was in place by late 2023. Since then, the project has evolved organically through community ownership and trust, with the support of an employed community garden manager. Today, the garden is thriving, with regular workshops, open days, and active guardians, clearly reflecting our original vision of collaborative, tangible impact.

How has DESIS Lab – hosted by the ERA Chair in Social Innovation – enhanced your journey?

DESIS Lab provided constant support throughout my journey, connecting me with a diverse network of experts and resources that deepened my involvement in social innovation. Their strong commitment to making the community garden a reality came especially through Anne-Laure’s hands-on supervision and Beatriz Bento’s early bridge-building between Nova SBE and the neighborhood. Together, we actively reached out to residents, and Beatriz was a great support in distributing flyers and facilitating communication, particularly by overcoming the Portuguese language barrier. This collaboration not only enriched my thesis with practical knowledge but also showed me how labs like DESIS turn ideas into lasting community impact.

Tell us about what you found successful, surprising and challenging in regards to the garden project

The project was most successful due to strong workshop participation, broad interest in the garden, and meaningful partnerships, ranging from student clubs to Cascais Ambiente, which built the accessibility ramp by late 2023. I was particularly surprised by the consistently high level of engagement, which exceeded my expectations in a business school context. In my thesis, I identified managing conflicting stakeholder interests, unstructured communication, and uncertainty around long-term governance as key challenges. As my time at Nova came to an end, I also had to step back from the project, which meant letting go without full control over its future — which was both challenging and a valuable learning experience.

What are you doing now?

Over the past two years, I have been tackling energy transition challenges through my Master’s in Service Design at HSLU in Lucerne. From a design perspective, I have explored how design can address the complex challenges of infrastructure and sustainability systems. At the same time, my sister and I are taking over our family business, which provides services for transformer stations that are essential for the energy transition. We are expanding our service portfolio, contributing directly to the critical infrastructure needed for a sustainable energy future.

What are your hopes and dreams for the future?

I hope that design will be understood not only as an aesthetic discipline, but as a key driver of meaningful change in projects, outcomes, and society. In the future, I want to help strengthen the role of design in addressing complex, systemic challenges. Professionally, I’m excited to contribute to the energy transition through our family business, ensuring essential infrastructure like smart transformer stations enables sustainability at scale. My dream role bridges technical complexity and real world needs, working with diverse stakeholders to discuss the energy future.

What words of advice would you give to those starting a new social innovation venture?

Start by testing your ideas early and often and make use of school programs like the Prototyping Fund as well as networks of like-minded people who share your drive. Let go of perfectionism, as it can block experimentation and slow down momentum. If an idea gains traction, build a solid foundation and develop it with patience. Community impact takes time, and meaningful growth needs space to unfold. Above all, remember that it’s not about your own ideas, but about responding to real community needs — even if that means gently letting go of concepts you are personally attached to.

Illustrated by Christoph Niemann for SSIR

In their 2024 article Design thinking misses the mark for Stanford Social Innovation Review, Anne-Laure Fayard and Sarah Fathallah argue that design thinking has failed to live up to its promise as a transformative tool for social change. Once seen as a fresh way to tackle difficult problems, the approach became popular across nonprofits, governments and foundations because it encouraged people to put human needs at the centre of decision-making. However, as it spread, it also became more formulaic and less able to respond to complex real-world contexts.

“A more meaningful approach requires recognising that design is never neutral, and that every intervention is shaped by assumptions, values and power dynamics that need to be made visible and open to scrutiny.”

Fayard and Fathallah assert that many projects fail because they underestimate structural and political realities, overlook existing power dynamics and prioritise rapid ideation over long-term implementation and accountability. Drawing on examples from education, policing, prison reform and international development, they show how participatory processes can become superficial when communities are consulted without real decision-making power. They also question the sector’s focus on novelty and scale, arguing that meaningful impact often comes from strengthening existing community knowledge, relationships and systems rather than constantly creating new solutions.

“Many of the challenges design thinking is applied to are not simply problems to be solved but long-standing systems shaped by history, politics and unequal power relations that cannot be addressed through short cycles of ideation and prototyping.”

Rather than rejecting design altogether, they call for a more thoughtful and self-aware approach that recognises how every project is shaped by values, assumptions and power relations. This means paying closer attention to who benefits, who makes decisions and whose voices are missing, while also shifting focus from quick solutions to longer-term relationships and trust. Lasting change is more likely when work is grounded in local realities and developed alongside communities over time rather than imposed through ready-made methods and fast cycles of innovation. The article closes with a set of critical provocations for designers and practitioners, encouraging them to reflect more deeply on participation, accountability, impact and the assumptions embedded in their own practice.

Read Design thinking misses the mark in full at Stanford Social Innovation Review

Through conversations with passionate and mindful designers, The Design Thinking Roundtable explores how design can create change and social impact. Ezio Manzini is widely regarded as a thought leader in the fields of sustainable design and social innovation. In 2009 he brought these two areas together in founding The DESIS Network (Design for Social Innovation and Sustainability) — a global network of design schools dedicated to advancing work at the intersection of these practices. In this episode, Ezio reflects on the growing crisis of care in contemporary society and what this means for the role of design. He reframes care not simply as service provision, but as a fundamental human attitude grounded in attention, empathy and effort — something that requires time, energy and, crucially, proximity.

A central thread in the conversation explores a key paradox: while care is essential to building resilient and sustainable societies, it cannot be directly designed. Instead, Ezio argues, designers must focus on shaping the conditions that make caring relationships possible. This means creating contexts and systems that gently invite people to connect, support one another and act with care. In a world increasingly structured around distance — from digital mediation to urban zoning — this shift challenges dominant design paradigms, calling for a move away from efficiency and abstraction toward relational, situated and human-scale thinking.

“The challenge for design today is not to control behaviour, but to gently invite more caring ways of living together.”

In his latest book, Ezio introduces the idea of livable proximity as a way to rethink cities and societies. Contrasting the fragmented, individualised landscapes of modern urban life with more dense and diverse historical models, he highlights how distance has eroded both social fabric and environmental resilience. From community gardens to neighbourhood-led initiatives and the ‘15-minute city’, he points to social innovation as a growing counter-movement — one that reconnects people through localised, collaborative systems of care.

Left to right: Pushpa Joshi, Sharmin Kabir and Lauren Gerchow

Pushpa Joshi is a social innovator in Nepal advocating on sexual and reproductive health and rights, menstrual wellbeing and gender equity. She is a cofounder of YoSHAN (Youth-led SRHR Advocacy Nepal) supporting young people in all their diversity to thrive together and protecting the right to bodily autonomy through discourse and actions on sexuality.

Sharmin Kabir is a social entrepreneur in Bangladesh who founded Wreetu – an organization focusing on gender equity and menstrual wellbeing for adolescent women. They created the first-ever complete comic book on puberty and menstrual hygiene in Bangla that is supporting millions of girls and their communities to change their period narratives.

Lauren Gerchow is a US-based Sexual and Reproductive Health Researcher & Community and Public Health Nurse. During her PhD in Nursing at NYU, Lauren engaged adolescent mothers in NY City through ethnographic interviews, participatory activities and co-design workshops to identify gaps in sexual and reproductive health education and care, and develop services that respond to their needs.

What kinds of challenges do you see being faced by young women in regards to reproductive health, education and rights?

Pushpa Young women in Nepal and across the world continue to face stigma, misinformation and limited access to comprehensive sexuality education and youth-friendly services, all rooted in deeply entrenched structural inequalities. Their autonomy is systematically restricted by patriarchal systems that seek to control their bodies, sexuality and choices. These barriers are even more severe for those at the intersections of marginalization — including queer individuals, young women with disabilities and women from marginalized castes.

Sharmin Challenges for young women in Bangladesh include lack of awareness due to the unavailability of trustworthy information, poor or no psychological support from family, school and society and cultural and religiously stigmatized social systems.

Lauren In the United States, reproductive rights are under sustained attack, and young people are often the first group targeted when access to sexual and reproductive health care or sex education is restricted. The specific challenges young women face vary across countries (shaped by culture, language, and health system structure) but the theme is consistent — girls and women everywhere encounter sexism and gendered expectations that constrain their health, safety, and self sufficiency.

What got you started working in this field?

Pushpa Growing up, I constantly questioned the discrimination and injustice directed toward girls and young women. I was drawn to this work because I have personally experienced the impact of patriarchy and structural inequalities from a young age. These experiences pushed me to challenge the systems and norms that shape our lives and limit our choices. When I discovered youth-led organizing, it gave me a space to channel that resistance into action. Since then, I have been committed to advancing sexual and reproductive health and rights through feminist, rights-based approaches that center the realities and voices of young women.

Sharmin Growing up in a patriarchal society, I was constantly thinking about the identity of women, our social system and disproportionate distribution of opportunities for women and men. In 2016, when I was working with adolescent girls, I found that they start losing their momentum of growing up because of their changes at puberty and menstruation. That inspired me to start Wreetu, my social enterprise to help adolescent girls know about their bodily changes, own and find confidence in these changes so they grow up as informed with their full identity.

Lauren I started out as a maternal-child community health nurse early in my career and knew almost immediately that this was the clinical work I wanted to stay in. But while I loved supporting individual patients and families, I kept running into the same structural problems around health equity and outcomes, and I wanted to approach them from a different angle. That’s what led me to a PhD and to focusing my research on young women’s sexual health.

What kinds of issues surround gender equity in your work?

Pushpa Gender inequity is deeply tied to power, control, and the regulation of bodies, especially of young women and marginalized communities. It manifests through restrictive social norms, stigma, and laws that limit bodily autonomy and decision-making. There is also a persistent erasure of identities beyond the gender binary, which excludes many from accessing rights and services. These inequities are not isolated but are part of broader systems of oppression that intersect with caste, class, ethnicity, disability, and sexuality.

Sharmin Gender equity is the center of my work. With increasing self-awareness and helping adolescents find their identity, my vision is to create a world where these girls can ask questions within our social system and take custody of their own rights.

Lauren Gender inequity shows up most starkly around young women’s sexual development and its health consequences — unintended pregnancy being the clearest example. Many of the young mothers I’ve worked with have described families and providers who treated their pregnancies as solely their fault, with no comparable scrutiny of their partners. ‘She should have behaved.’ ‘She should have controlled herself.’ Young women hear these lines constantly, and young mothers hear them most. In my work, some young women recognize the gendered logic, but others have been socialized into a world where normative adolescent sexuality is defined entirely differently for girls than for boys.

Tell us about some of the participatory approaches you have used.

Pushpa We use participatory and feminist facilitation approaches that center lived experiences and collective reflection. Methods such as storytelling, role-plays, film screenings, group discussions, and values clarification exercises create spaces where participants can question dominant norms and unpack their own beliefs. We strongly emphasize peer learning, where knowledge is co-created rather than delivered. This approach helps participants build confidence, critical thinking, and a sense of ownership over both the learning process and their own narratives.

Sharmin In our work in Bangladesh, we use the Human Centered Design model to develop content like comics for adolescents girls and boys. We engage them in the whole process of development like brainstorming, developing content, feedback, and editing. They drive the whole process — we just work as the catalyst.

Lauren In my work with adolescent mothers, empathy mapping was the most powerful participatory approach I used. It divides a page into four quadrants (do, say, think, feel) and I asked the young mothers to fill in each one about themselves and their sexual health. Then they filled out a second map from the perspective of the adults in their lives: what those adults do, think, say, and feel about adolescent sexuality and young parents. For many participants, the exercise was the first time they had a structured way to recognize and name the biases and discrimination they were up against.

What have you found challenging and surprising in your work?

Pushpa One of the biggest challenges is working in environments where silence around sexuality is normalized and even enforced. Breaking that silence requires time, trust and continuous engagement. At the same time, what constantly surprises me is how quickly young people begin to open up once a safe space is created. Their willingness to question, unlearn and reimagine norms gives me hope and reaffirms the importance of this work.

Sharmin Finding boys and men who are very curious to know about women’s reproductive system and support the girls and women has surprised me. Plus the challenge of the patriarchal mindset of women who live in a belief that they are subjugative and need not get the right information and services. They are more likely to spend their lives as their predecessors with no changes, no uplifting.

Lauren The most surprising thing about this work has also been the most challenging: the sheer number of barriers to doing research with young women — barriers that come from systems, organizations, and individuals. I came to this work because so few people were willing to give young mothers a real chance to voice their needs and experiences. And in trying to do it, I ran into institutional gatekeeping around adolescent research participation, alongside persistent biases suggesting that adolescents can’t think critically or follow through on research commitments.

Tell us a story of success

Pushpa For me, success is when knowledge translates into agency and action. One participant shared that she had started discussing consent and contraception openly with her husband and was making informed decisions about her future and life. That moment reflected a powerful shift from silence to agency. In another workshop, adolescents who initially hesitated to even say the word menstruation went on to confidently lead sessions on sexual and reproductive health and rights. Witnessing these transformations from hesitation to leadership is deeply powerful.

Sharmin This is a story of our 8 years old Manha who joined our online Menstruation and Puberty course online during COVID and the confident journey of her menarche. When she was 10 years old and got her menarche, her mother called me, with tears in her eyes, that Manha’s teachers were surprised to find her so comfortable and confident in her first period in school. She also reported how Manha’s aunts are now rethinking their period perspectives and the shame that they have been living with all these years. Girls like Manha are spreading positive period narratives in their schools and among their friends and families.

Lauren One of the participants from my doctoral research reached out to tell me she had returned to secondary school — and that she’d chosen to write one of her essays on why sex education matters for young people. The essay drew on her own experience of becoming pregnant as a teenager and what could have helped her avoid it, but it was also something bigger: evidence of her resilience, her capacity to make decisions about her own life, and her commitment to supporting other young people in doing the same, whether they would choose to parent or to terminate a pregnancy.

What advice would you have for someone entering the field of sexual and reproductive health and rights?

Pushpa Stay rooted in feminist values and remain accountable to the communities you work with. This field demands both critical reflection and courage to challenge systems of power. Be patient but persistent because meaningful change is slow, but it is always possible.

Sharmin Involve your audiences in designing your programs. Integrate your vision to align with international and national commitments/treaties. Stay updated by regularly join national and international conferences (online and/or offline)

Lauren Find a community of like-minded people who believe in the mission. The voices against supporting young people — and especially young women — in taking charge of their sexual and reproductive health are loud and persistent. A support system of people who share your values is the key in how to stay grounded, test ideas, and get through the hard stretches.

Listen further on our Design Thinking Roundtable podcast:

Sharmin Kabir – Wreetu: Changing the Period Narratives of Bangladesh
Pushpa Joshi – A Nepalese Social Activist and Social Innovator in Residence

Over the past year, our community garden at Nova School of Business and Economics has become much more than a space — it has become a testing ground for how communities form, participate, and take ownership. What has emerged are some core learnings — relevant not just to community gardens, but to anyone working in communitybbuilding, social innovation, or participatory projects.

Design for different levels of engagement

Many people are likely to show interest in participating in a new initiative — but it soon becomes evident that they cannot all commit in the same ways. When participation is designed only for consistency, you exclude a large portion of potential contributors. By contrast, when you create multiple participation pathways — some lightweight and more accessible — you significantly increase the opportunity for engagement.

The key shift for us was moving from a single participation model to a layered one:

• Low-commitment: one-hour tasks (one off or serial)

• Medium engagement: recurring volunteering on longer projects

• High engagement: guardianship and long-term stewardship

This has allowed more people to participate in ways that suit them, while still supporting the emergence of a committed core.

INSIGHT: Participation increases when people can choose their level of involvement — and move between levels over time.

Build a core — then shift from leading to supporting

Participatory projects often speak about ‘community ownership,’ but ownership usually needs to be scaffolded to emerge. A dedicated community management function can play a critical role in building trust, maintaining continuity and coordination, lowering barriers to participation, and connecting people into a shared culture of care.

Over time, a core group of garden guardians has formed, including local residents, university staff and passionate individuals — developing a deep connection to this flourishing space. They hold knowledge, make decisions, and take responsibility for its continuity.

This group has developed:

• Practical knowledge of the space

• Confidence to make decisions

• A sense of ownership and responsibility

Like roots, this layer is not always the most visible, but it is what stabilises the system. It forms gradually, through repeated engagement, trust, and shared experience. As this layer strengthens, the role of community managers can shift from guiding to enabling.

INSIGHT: Ownership is not assigned — it grows. Be intentional about creating avenues for community members to lead and know when to step back to more of a facilitating role.

Switch mindset from project to platform

Some of our most valuable developments came from staying open to change:

• External experts bringing new knowledge into the space (e.g. workshops on mushrooms, bird spotting and neuroscience)

• Participants evolving into facilitators over time

• New groups (such as student clubs) exploring and activating the space

The result is not always predictable — but it is more resilient and generative. This approach increases relevance, diversity of use, and long-term vitality — but requires comfort with uncertainty and less control over outcomes. What might you unlock if you treated your project as a platform that others can plug into?

INSIGHT: The more a project can be used and shaped by others, the more community value it can create.

What we’re testing next

Building on these learnings, we are focusing on three experiments for the year ahead:

• New participation formats such as weekly open mornings (drop-in, low barrier) alongside more structured Open Days

• The garden as a living lab — hosting external experiments from artistic practices to ecological initiatives

• Shared governance and sustainability through establishing a multi-stakeholder board (launched in January) and exploring various models to support the garden beyond its current funding phase

At our NOVA SBE Community Garden, one thing has become abundantly clear: community projects don’t grow through intention alone. They grow through how participation is designed, how ownership is enabled, and how open the system is to evolution. The garden simply makes these community dynamics visible.

Through conversations with passionate and mindful designers, The Design Thinking Roundtable explores how design can create change and social impact. In this episode Francesco Cara — designer, educator and curator — traces his journey from cognitive science and early AI research into user-centred design, before shifting his focus toward eco-design, activism and design in an era shaped by climate crisis and systemic change. Francesco is also an activist for Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project and for the Right to Repair. What connects his work is a deep commitment to understanding cognition in real-world contexts and using that insight to shape systems, tools and collaborations that respond to today’s complex global challenges.

Francesco reflects on how the concept of distributed cognition — understanding thinking as something that happens across people, tools and environments — naturally led him into design. This perspective underpinned his early work in user experience and human-computer interaction, and continues to inform his approach today. Faced with what he describes as a global polycrisis of climate disruption, biodiversity loss and inequality, he argues that designers must move beyond reducing harm and instead actively contribute to rebalancing relationships between society, technology and the natural world through regenerative approaches.

“We need to move from design that reduces harm to design that actively gives back — to society and to the living world.”

A central theme of the conversation is the shift from human-centred to more-than-human design. Through examples such as using grazing animals to prevent wildfires, protecting beavers to restore ecosystems, and designing for human–elephant coexistence in Sri Lanka, Francesco illustrates how design can integrate the needs of multiple species. These cases highlight a move away from extractive, anthropocentric models toward collaborative systems that create mutual benefit. For Francesco, this requires designers to embrace complexity, work across sectors, and rethink their role as facilitators of coexistence within the broader web of life.

Something is growing in our garden and it’s not just plants. Earlier this month at the Community Garden at Nova School of Business and Economics, we welcomed Marion Oberhuber of The Plant Wisdom Project for a workshop exploring the connection between neuroscience and plants. What unfolded in the garden that day was more than a workshop — it was a moment of community.

Students, visitors, and curious minds gathered to learn and co-create. Some joined the session, others naturally flowed into tending the garden — planting, caring, contributing. Different rhythms, one shared space.

It was a reminder that growth doesn’t happen overnight. We plant seeds and expect immediate results. But what we’re building at our Community Garden at NOVA SBE is rooted in trust, patience, and time. And now, we’re beginning to see it slowly and genuinely flourish. It was heartening to see people from across Lisbon join our students — blurring the lines between campus and city. Our community garden guardians loved having the space they have been tending become so full of life.

Open Day – from grounding to growing

Last month we hosted our annual Open Day — a moment of connection, learning and co-creation with our NOVA SBE students and garden guardians community. We started the morning with a grounding yoga session led by Natasha from the Nova Growth Club, setting the tone for a day rooted in well-being and connection with ourselves, each other, and nature. Throughout the morning, guardians introduced the planting areas they care for — sharing their knowledge, stories, and dedication to nurturing these spaces with students — who in turn helped with some much needed weeding.

We then explored our grove together with local community members and guided by our garden consultant João Martins. He helped us identify local plant species, deepening our understanding of the surrounding ecosystem and taught us how to cut them so we could propagate them in the garden. To close the day, participants got their hands in the soil, planting in a flower bed thoughtfully prepared by our amazing student volunteers from Open Thursdays. A true moment of collective action and care.

At the heart of what we do is the belief that meaningful change happens when we learn, grow and experiment together. I do believe that we plant seeds in everything we do: in conversations, in projects, in care. And with time, some of them begin to sprout. Right now it truly feels like spring and some of those seeds are starting to emerge.

Born in the US and raised in Belgium, Vittorio Ferritti, combines a socially active upbringing with an early entrepreneurial streak. From a young age, he was drawn to nature, science and making things happen — launching small ventures and projects that evolved into more serious business pursuits over time. Vittorio’s studies in bioengineering, specialising in bio-based materials, deepened a commitment to sustainability, while also prompting a search for greater purpose. This led him to the Master’s in Impact Entrepreneurship at NOVA School of Business and Economics, which provided Vittorio with an opportunity to explore translating sustainable innovation into meaningful ventures.

Tell us about your QuietCotton and Waste to Light initiatives

So both QuietCotton and Waste to Light came from the same idea: taking waste and turning it into something valuable and desirable. QuietCotton was about using textile waste to create acoustic panels, so combining sustainability with a real functional use. Waste to Light was more experimental. I worked with mushroom substrate waste to grow mycelium-based lamps and design objects. What I liked in both was showing that waste can actually become something premium and aesthetically pleasing.

What first drew you to get involved in upcycling and sustainability?

I’ve always liked the idea of creating something out of nothing, especially with materials. At some point I realized sustainability wasn’t just a constraint, but actually a huge opportunity for innovation. That’s what got me hooked and into mixing creativity, science, and business.

How did your journey with your 2 Prototyping Fund projects play out?

It was a chance to actually get to work, no excuses. It involves a lot of trial and error. The Prototyping Fund helped me go from just ideas to actually building things and testing them. With Waste to Light, I worked with a mushroom farm and experimented with the material, growth conditions, and shapes. Some things worked, some didn’t but that was the whole learning process. It really taught me how to move fast, adapt, and deal with uncertainty.

How did DESIS Lab — hosted by the ERA Chair in Social Innovation — enhance your journey?

DESIS Lab was super important because it gave me the space and mindset to experiment. I met people from totally different backgrounds, which pushed me to think beyond just the technical side. It also helped me see my projects as part of a bigger system, not just standalone products.

Tell us about what you have found successful, surprising and challenging across your impact entrepreneurship journey at NOVA and how this shaped your onwards professional journey?

I think what worked well was actually building real prototypes and getting feedback early. What surprised me is how much storytelling matters. People need to understand and connect with what you’re doing. The hardest part was managing uncertainty, especially on the technical side. In the end, it pushed me towards working in sustainable materials, but in a more structured research and development (R&D) environment.

What are you doing now and what are your hopes for the future?

Right now I’m working at Toyota in R&D, focusing on recycled plastics and sustainable materials. At the same time, I’m always looking for my next personal project, and currently I’m building an app called Recipees with my best friend. The idea is to solve the problem of saving recipes across social media by automatically extracting, organising, and centralising them in one place. We already have a functional prototype and are now focused on building fast and launching before the end of 2026. It’s something I’m putting a lot of time, energy, and investment into. In the long term I’d love to either launch my own ventures or scale innovative biomaterials solutions.

What words of advice would you give to those starting a new social innovation venture?

Don’t overthink it — just start building and testing as soon as possible. You’ll learn way more from doing than planning. And surround yourself with people with the same desire and motivation. Always ask questions and talk with people that are much more advanced in the process than you, it will help. Always try to solve the problem in the best way— instead of thinking in terms of a product. And most important, verify as early as possible, if there is a real demand for what you are creating. Build fast and simple and then adapt, don’t overcomplicate. People need to understand the problem and your solution instantly, that’s how you will get interest and attract people to support you.

Through conversations with passionate and mindful designers, The Design Thinking Roundtable explores how design can create change and social impact. In this episode Jon Alexander — storyteller, strategist and author of Citizens — explores the shift from seeing people as consumers to engaging them as citizens, tracing how his early career in advertising led him to question the stories shaping society and imagine a more participatory future.

Jon reframes citizenship as something we do, not something we have: a practice of contributing ideas, energy and care to shared outcomes. He outlines three dominant stories shaping society — subject, consumer and citizen — arguing that the consumer story underpinning much of modern design is no longer fit for today’s challenges. Instead, he calls for a move towards “citizen-centred design”, where the role of organisations is not to serve or control people, but to invite them into their own agency through participation, collaboration and collective problem-solving.

“Most of the stories we tell right now focus on how broken things are — but if we only stare into the chasm, we risk falling into it”

Jon highlights the power of storytelling in shifting what we pay attention to — from crisis and collapse to possibility and emergence. He positions himself not as an activist challenging broken systems — but as an actionist helping to build new ones, emphasising that meaningful change comes from creating alternative models that make the old ways obsolete.

Embroidery workshop with Homelore diaspora artisans . Photograph by Ana Paganini

Two years ago, Homelore began as a question — what if the needle could become a tool for claiming space, for stitching presence into places designed to render certain lives invisible? The Threads of a Practice exhibition currently showing at the Nova School of Business and Economics champions Homelore artisans from diverse diaspora backgrounds — creating works that weave together personal narratives, shared histories, and the vibrant textures of life in a globalized world.

Launched during Women’s Month, the exhibition also traces the Homelore journey. What started as a small project has blossomed into a platform where Lisbon-based diaspora women artisans gather to create and redefine what it means to carry tradition forward. The wider context of the exhibition highlights how nurturing innovation by the ERA Chair in Social Innovation and its DESIS Lab has been a process of weaving. Along the way, this journey has revealed practical lessons about sustaining projects, connecting initiatives, and nurturing ecosystems that allow social innovation to thrive.

Close up of an embroidered map by Homelore artisans. Photograph by Alice Martins

Weaving across time (sustained care)

Impact does not happen all at once when a project launches — it unfolds over time. Scaling deep means staying with a project long enough for its meaning, identity and potential to emerge.

The exhibition by Homelore is an example of where we have supported a project from its emergence as a Master’s student side project — holding space for its identity, purpose and pursuits to evolve — through various iterations and cycles of exploration and becoming. In doing so, it is more about sustained care — the very condition that enables social innovation to flourish over time.

Opening of Threads of a Practice in the Konnect Area. Photograph by Alice Martins

Weaving across activities and infrastructure (creating a system)

Real change rarely happens in isolation. When innovative projects and spaces are connected, their impact multiplies. It is about intentionally joining projects together so that their impact is cumulative — allowing them to strengthen, extend and give meaning to one another.

The exhibition takes place in the Konnect Area, a space that emerged from the C3 project which was sponsored by KPMG and run by the DESIS Lab. The space sought to transform the existing space into a dynamic hub that fosters creativity, innovation, and inclusion through co-creation. Citing Homelore’s exhibition here has activated creative community engagement — including embroidery workshops led by Homelore artisans. (fun fact: Homelore’s founder Riddhi Varma was a KPMG Design Fellow across the co-creation process for the development of Konnect Area). Connecting projects intentionally is a way to amplify impact and nurture ecosystems.

Embroidered map from Threads of a Practice exhibition. Photograph by Alice Martins

Weaving in education (curating dialogues)

Learning is strongest when theory meets practice and students can engage directly with real-world projects. Bringing education into dialogue with ongoing social innovation allows research to be informed by lived experience, not just abstract frameworks.

Within the education ecosystem at NOVA SBE, Anne-Laure Fayard, the ERA Chaired professor for Social Innovation, teaches a course on design thinking for social innovation. The Homelore Exhibition has provided a vivid opportunity for her students to explore during the research phase of their project on narratives and migration. By integrating ongoing projects into education not only is learning enriched, but also the reach and resonance of social innovation is amplified by connecting students, researchers, and practitioners in a shared ecosystem.

Homelore artisans embroidering. Photographs from Homelore

The story of Homelore and Threads of a Practice shows that social innovation is rarely a sprint. Impact unfolds over time, through patient attention, iteration, and care. Supporting projects beyond their initial launch allows meaning and influence to emerge. Sustained care is not about speed or immediate reach — it is about creating the conditions for innovation to take root and thrive.

At the same time, impact multiplies when projects, spaces, and learning ecosystems are intentionally connected. Thinking systemically by linking initiatives, infrastructures, and educational experiences expands what any single effort could achieve alone. By cultivating relationships and networks where ideas, skills, and practices circulate — social innovators can weave ecosystems that grow and adapt over time.

For German-born Charlotte Kramer, fashion was always more than a creative outlet — it was a lifelong passion. Yet as her awareness of the industry’s environmental and social challenges grew, she began searching for ways to align that passion with her values. The Masters in Impact Entrepreneurship and Innovation at NOVA School of Business and Economics offered space to explore the potential alignment. During the programme she collaborated on a socially and environmentally conscious fashion venture developed through field research in Uganda. Here she shares her social innovation journey, her honest reflections along the way, and advice for those who are just starting out.

Tell us what led you to the Masters in Impact Entrepreneurship and Innovation

My passion for fashion began in childhood, and I always wanted to turn my dream into my profession. Over time, as I grew older and moved from a small town to a bigger city, my worldview evolved and my expectations increased. I wanted my work not only to reflect my passion but also my values — particularly social justice and responsible use of resources in the sense of sustainability.

During my studies, I became increasingly interested in topics such as consumption, sustainable fashion, and the circular economy. When I started looking for my first full time job in Cologne, I struggled to identify with the fashion industry. I began questioning consumption patterns and the environmental and social impacts of the industry.

As a result, I decided to work in corporate responsibility, hoping this would allow me to create the most meaningful impact within the industry. I stayed in that position for about a year, but I realized that I was not happy. I had chosen my values over my passion, and my work focused mainly on regulations and legal frameworks rather than products. Although it was an important and valuable step in my career, it was not something that fulfilled me long term. At that point, I realized that I wanted to expand my knowledge to find a career that could combine both my passion and my values.

For several years I had already been thinking about starting my own business and had developed ideas for a new and potentially revolutionary brand. However, I realized that I lacked not only the courage but also the knowledge and network to turn this dream into reality. That is how I found the Masters in Impact Entrepreneurship and Innovation at NOVA SBE and it felt like the perfect way to combine my ambitions, ideas, and values.

Describe your social innovation journey at NOVA SBE

My social innovation journey actually began in 2018 when I supported a social project for the first time. I have always had an intrinsic motivation to contribute something positive. During my semester break, I traveled to Ghana, where I supported a deaf seamstress in developing her tailoring skills and building a more stable business for her income security. This experience sparked the idea of potentially collaborating in the future and exploring whether sustainable textile production could be developed in Ghana — a country where raw materials for textile production also grow. The following year I tested this idea with a small pilot collection.

Once I was at NOVA SBE the idea was able to grow further. I met a team who found the idea exciting, and together we developed it during our Masters program. A position as a trainer and consultant for GIZ in Uganda brought the idea I had started in Ghana back to life. During this time, I expanded my network in Uganda, which then became the foundation for launching my next pilot project together with a team.

What drew you to get involved in this social innovation initiative?

My main driver was the desire to create change within the fashion industry. I wanted to contribute to greater social justice and promote a more conscious and responsible use of resources.

How did your journey with AGOJIStudio play out?

During the Masters program, I collaborated to develop the label AGOJI Studio — a fashion brand focused on socially and environmentally sustainable fashion. Our goal was not only to reuse existing resources but also to create job opportunities for women in Uganda. As part of our field study, we conducted research in Kampala, where we tested many of our assumptions. We found a local partner who collaborated with us on product development — a handbag woven from recycled tshirt yarn. The bag was produced in her workshop, which employs women to help provide them with financial stability.

For our MVP, this worked very well. However, we also discovered that many of the assumptions we had made about the problem did not fully match reality. For example, we assumed that women would prefer stable employment. In reality, many preferred self employment because it offers greater flexibility for their care responsibilities. This showed us how essential it is to test assumptions early. Another major learning was how saturated the fashion market is and how price sensitive customers really are. While many people liked the idea and the product, the willingness to actually buy it was much lower than expected.

After our Masters program, we continued working on the project alongside our full time jobs. However, none of us were truly passionate about the marketing side, which is crucial in such a competitive industry. After two years, we decided to end the project. This was not an easy decision for me — but in the end, I realized that it was taking more energy than it was giving. Still, I remain incredibly grateful for the experiences and lessons we gained along the way.

How did DESIS Lab – hosted by the ERA Chair in Social Innovation – enhance your journey?

The DESIS Lab supported us in many ways — particularly Anne-Laure, who believed in us and helped us with the right questions and connections. The Prototyping Fund supported us to prepare our field trip to Uganda and allowed us to work with different prototypes on site. The Design Jam gave us another opportunity to present our project and discuss our problem statement and target group with other teams. The process helped us reflect on important questions: Who are we really doing this for — the seamstresses or customers looking for a sustainable product? Should our focus be on ecological sustainability or social sustainability?

Returning later as a mentor for a Design Jam on sustainable fashion organized by the DESIS Lab was also a very meaningful experience for me. It showed me how much knowledge and experience I had gained, and that I could support other teams by sharing what I had learned. It also made me realize that I am able to ask the right questions to guide people on their own journeys.

Tell us about what you have found successful, surprising and challenging across your social innovation journey

One of the most incredible aspects for me was that during the Masters program I had the time and space to work on my absolute dream project. I am very proud that my team and I managed to develop, produce, and officially register our business, which we ran for two years. Throughout the journey, we grew significantly by overcoming many challenges. One of the most difficult parts for me personally was learning to distance my self worth from the success of the project. It was also challenging to stay motivated when facing setbacks. Another difficulty was that we initially tried to solve too many problems at once, which made it harder to clearly define our core problem and maintain focus.

What are you doing now and what are your hopes for the future?

I am currently working as a Product Manager at Buffalo Boots GmbH. It feels great to give creativity space again in my professional life. The dream of starting my own business is still alive, but for now I want to continue learning and absorbing new input rather than constantly being the one generating it. When you run your own business, everything has to come from you or your team — the drive, the ideas, the energy. At the moment, I appreciate the stability of my current role and enjoy discovering how much positive change can also happen within an existing company.

What words of advice would you give to those starting a new social innovation venture?

Focus on the problem, not the solution and test your assumptions as early as possible. Try to concentrate on solving one problem instead of many at once, and be open to redefining the problem if your research shows something different. Finally, try to maintain some distance from the project. It is important to identify with your work, but it should not define your entire self worth.