My Expertise
My work is driven by a commitment to supporting people to navigate uncertainty, complexity, and change through design. My primary area of expertise is resilience in design education and professional practice, alongside broader work in design-led innovation and strategic design for complex social challenges.
I am recognised as a leading voice in resilience and wellbeing in design, exploring how designers and students can develop the confidence, adaptability, and self-awareness needed to thrive in demanding and rapidly changing environments. My work brings together wellbeing, creativity, and professional capability, with a strong focus on creating more supportive and sustainable approaches to design education and practice. This commitment is reflected in The Resilient Designer’s Handbook, multiple awards for teaching excellence, and my leadership of funded educational initiatives that advance innovative and student-centred pedagogies.
Alongside this work, I have built a strong profile in design-led innovation, helping organisations use design as a way to rethink systems, create value, and respond to change. Originating in my doctoral research on design-led innovation in industry, this work has led to international publications, funded projects, and collaborations that connect academic research with practical application across sectors. Across all areas of my work, I am committed to advancing design as a thoughtful, human-centred discipline that helps people and organisations build more resilient and sustainable futures.
Keywords
Biography
Dr Rebecca Price is an Australian design researcher, educator, and academic leader committed to preparing designers for long, healthy, and impactful careers. Her work explores how design education can evolve to equip graduates with the resilience, creativity, and professional capabilities needed to address increasingly complex social, environmental, and technological challenges. At the heart of her research is a simple proposition: if design...view more
Dr Rebecca Price is an Australian design researcher, educator, and academic leader committed to preparing designers for long, healthy, and impactful careers. Her work explores how design education can evolve to equip graduates with the resilience, creativity, and professional capabilities needed to address increasingly complex social, environmental, and technological challenges. At the heart of her research is a simple proposition: if design seeks to create meaningful systemic change, then we must also prepare the people who will lead it. This commitment underpins The Resilient Designer's Handbook, multiple teaching awards, and her leadership of nationally and internationally funded educational initiatives.
Rebecca holds a PhD in Design from Queensland University of Technology (Brisbane, Australia), where her research examined the implementation of design-led innovation within an Australian airport corporation. She subsequently spent almost a decade at Delft University of Technology in the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering (Netherlands), progressing from Postdoctoral Research Fellow to Assistant Professor and Master's Programme Director of Strategic Product Design. Alongside teaching and research, she led curriculum innovation, supervised three Doctoral candidates and 40 Master of Science thesis students, and contributed to faculty leadership and interdisciplinary collaborations.
Dr Price's research spans industrial design, design innovation, human-centred and systemic design, design education, and the emerging field of designer resilience. She has published in leading journals including Designing, Design Issues, She Ji:The Journal of Design, Economics, and Innovation, Studies in Higher Education, The Design Journal, and Action Research. Her work has contributed to international conversations about resilience, wellbeing, and the future of design education, while The Resilient Designer's Handbook has been adopted by students, educators, and practitioners across multiple countries.
Alongside her work on designer resilience, Rebecca has led and contributed to research exploring how design can strengthen the resilience of organisations, cities, and communities. As lead investigator, she has secured more than AUD $2 million in competitive funding from government, industry, and higher education agencies. Major awards include the CLICKNL project i-Tree 2.0: Next-Generation Metrics and Methodologies for Urban Forestry and Climate Resilience in Dutch Cities (€800,000), which developed new approaches to designing climate-resilient urban environments; the Roffa Lab project Climate Resilience by Design (€200,000), advancing transdisciplinary approaches to urban resilience; and a Dutch National Comenius Senior Fellowship (€100,000) for Forging Designer Resilience, which translated this systems perspective into educational practice by embedding resilience and wellbeing within design curricula. Together, these projects reflect a sustained research agenda that examines resilience from two complementary perspectives: designing more resilient systems and developing more resilient designers.
An award-winning educator, Rebecca received Delft University of Technology's Most Inspiring Teacher Award on multiple occasions, an annual award voted for by graduating Master's students in recognition of educators who had the greatest influence on their learning and professional development. She has also received faculty recognition for educational innovation and leadership, securing €70,000 of internal competitive funding to advance education at TU Delft. Dr Price continues to contribute to the international academic community through doctoral and journal reviewing, conference leadership, and invited keynote presentations.
My Grants
2026_European Commission: Erasmus+ Research Programme 400,000€
"Well Well Well: Mental health and wellbeing in design education and beyond"
Consortium: Aalborg University (Lead), TU Delft, Politecnico di Milano, The Oslo School of Architecture and Design, Aalto University
UNSW will participate as an external partner.
2025_TU Delft and 4TU Education Fellowship - 50,000 €
"Educating Resilient Engineers" (Grant returned after moving to UNSW)
Lead: Rebecca Price
2025_European Commission: Erasmus+ Mobility Grant - 5,000 €
In collaboration with Politecnico di Milano and Aalto University.
Lead: Rebecca Price
2024_ TU Delft Education Stimulation Grant - 20,000 €
"Cultivating Resilience in TU Delft Learning Environments"
Lead: Rebecca Price
2022-2024_Convergence Rotterdam Programme, Resilient Delta Theme - 200,000€
"Roffa Lab" Link to Website
Lead: Rebecca Price and Rene van der Velde
2021-2023_ NRO Senior Comenius Fellowship - 100,000€:
“Forging Designer Resilience” Link to Website
Lead: Rebecca Price
2021-2024_ ClickNL Grant - 800 000€
“I.Tree NL 2.0” In collaboration with the TU Architecture Faculty and 29 consortium members. Dashboard Outcome Website Link – Report
Lead: Rebecca Price and Rene van der Velde
2019-2020_ NWO Creative Industries Kickstart Funding - 18,000€.
“Urban Heatwaves.” In collaboration with the Netherlands Red Cross: Report
Lead: Rebecca Price
My Qualifications
University Teaching Qualifications Diploma | 2020-2023
TU Delft and the 4TU Dutch Network. Modules on Supervision, Teaching, Assessment, Developing Education.
Doctor of Philosophy (Design) | 2013-2016
Queensland University of Technology (2013-2016) – Thesis title: Implementing Design-led Innovation within an Australian Airport Corporation. Nominated for an Australian postgraduate award for outstanding thesis.
Bachelor of Design (Industrial Design) (Hons) | 2009-2012
Queensland University of Technology Minors in Art History and Design and People-Environment Interactions. Graduated as Infinity Design Award Winner for Most Outstanding Graduate.
My Awards
2025_Awarded Most Inspiring Teaching in Strategic Product Design - Delft University of Technology
2023_ Awarded Most Inspiring Teacher in Strategic Product Design - Delft University of Technology
2021_ Awarded Most Inspiring Teacher in Strategic Product Design - Delft University of Technology
2020_ Awarded Most Inspiring Teacher in Strategic Product Design - Delft University of Technology
2019_ Awarded Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering’s Most Inspiring Teacher 2019.
Nominated for best Teacher across entire Delft University of Technology
2018_ Awarded Best Conference Paper
Baha, E., Dawdy, G., Sturkenboom, N., Price, R., & Snelders, D. (2018). Good Design-Driven Innovation. Paper presented at the DRS 2018 Catalyst. Limerick, IRE.
2017_ Awarded Best Track Reviewer
For the track Innovation and Design at the Australian and New Zealand Marketing Academy Conference, 2017. RMIT Melbourne.
2016_Nominated for an Australian Postgraduate award for outstanding PhD thesis. Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane.
2012_Graduated as Infinity Design Award Winner for Most Outstanding Graduate. - Queensland University of Technology
My Research Activities
Technical Reports:
[Technical Report] i.Tree 2.0 NL Next-generation metrics and methodologies for urban forestry and climate resilience in Dutch cities: HERE
[Technical Report] Initiating a Multi-Party Collaboration for Adaption and Resilience to Urban Heatwaves: HERE
[Technical Report in Dutch] BOS op POTEN (Walking Trees): HERE
My Research Supervision
Areas of supervision
Design- led innovation and strategic design
Action research in organisational contexts
Educational research and development
Industrial design practice-based research