RCA Grand Challenge exhibition: Generating Marine Sustainable Economies

In the largest RCA Grand Challenge competition to date, students across the RCA’s School of Design worked in collaboration with the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) to explore the ways design can leverage and stimulate citizen science-led practices for increasing the health and productivity of the world’s oceans.

97 student groups partnered with RNLI volunteers across the UK, with the RNLI’s integration within these diverse coastline communities providing a valuable network to connect the student groups to the local populations and the ocean. The resulting design solutions all aim at increasing the resilience of UK coastal communities.

See the shortlisted projects this March in the Grand Challenge exhibition at our new Battersea campus.

These creative innovations demonstrate the effectiveness of a community-centred approach to design whilst revealing intriguing qualitative data about ocean-based economies in the UK. The devised solutions address a range of topics including increasing sea grass growth, reducing the erosion of seabeds, and upcycling abandoned boats. Of the 12 shortlisted projects, three winners will be selected by a panel of judges including Professor Paul Anderson (Vice Chancellor at the RCA), Stephanie Ockenden (Head of Ocean and Climate Change Policy at the UK’s Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs), Claire Deuchar (Chief Information Officer, Insights, Technology and Strategy, RNLI), Anna Frizzell (Sustainability Manager, RNLI) and Aura Murillo (Co-founder and Head of Experience and Service Design at Resting Reef).

Opening times:

Fri 10th - Tue 14th March 10am - 4pm
Closed Sunday 12th March