Ruth Helen Melioranski

Ruth-Helene Melioranski is a design researcher in the Estonian Academy of Arts, Estonia. She has a background in design practices and many of her projects explore how design can tackle societal challenges. Through these practice-based research projects she is conceptualising new and emerging design practises both in professional and higher educational contexts. In her professional practice, she is leading several strategic, service and co-design projects which aim to help partners to vision their future possibilities and build scenarios. In parallel, she has been working at Tallinn University of Technology’s (TalTech), developing the Design & Technology Futures – a joint international master’s programme of the TalTech and EKA – and now supervises EKA’s students’ teams with their design-driven innovation projects. In addition, Ruth-Helene Melioranski has been researching design policies and design support programmes since 2005 while she led the research of the Estonian design scene as a partner of the Nordic-Baltic innovation platform for Creative Industries. She was the founding director of the Estonian Design Centre (2008-2011) and prior to that the leader of the Estonian Design Year (2006-2007). Her wide experience in the field includes the participation of several international cooperation programmes, like European Design Training Incubator, a collaborative platform to foster exchange, share resources and benchmark Continuous Professional Development to foster the use of design as an economic driver; and Sharing Experience Europe (SEE) Platform, a network of European partners engaging with government to integrate design into innovation policies and programmes.