The Swiss Graduate Network of Use-inspired Research in Design, Film and Art (SwissGradNet) is a network of three Swiss universities of applied sciences and three international higher education institutions. SwissGradNet offers access to use-inspired, practice-based doctoral programmes in the fields of art, design and film and responds to a lack of use-inspired PhD programmes in these fields. It is the first cooperation of its kind in Switzerland, which connects the three Swiss cultural areas and offers PhD candidates access to foreign higher education institutions that are authorized to award doctoral degrees. The leading house of SwissGradNet is the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts – School of Art and Design.

 

SwissGradNet hosts the annual Discovery Conference and other events such as lectures and tutorials. Within the network, SwissGradNet partners offer PhD preparation courses, training for supervisors as well as supervision, advanced research and methodology colloquia for doctoral students.

 

Since 2022, the Lucerne School of Art & Design and the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad offer their first joint PhD cooperation, Eco-Social Innovation by Design, an international PhD programme that aims to contribute to the diverse landscape of eco-social innovation from a design perspective.