Commemorating the 30th anniversary of the MDes Program, the MDes Research & Development Award supports research and development of projects in the multiple formats and media of the MDes Program vision, offering an opportunity unique to MDes students for experimentation, immersion, and discovery. The Award supports travel to archives, fieldwork, project development, material experiments, and occasionally supports conference presentations.

Proposals are reviewed once each year, on an annual basis in the spring semester. Proposals are evaluated for the quality, clarity and originality of the proposed research, project activity, and projected outcomes. The jury is composed of MDes Domain Heads and Program Directors.

Recent recipients include:

2025
Maya Shamir, MDes Ecologies
Grant Stokes, MDes Ecologies
Wyatt Roy, MDes Mediums
Eric Rannestad, MDes Mediums
Ieva Lygnugaryte, MDes Narratives
Renzo Moreno, MDes Narratives
Tyler White, MDes Narratives
Ami Mehta, MDes Publics
Ignacio Lira, MDes Publics
Arundhati Prasad, MDes Publics

2024
Angelina Zhang, MDes Ecologies
Keunwook Kim, MDes Mediums
Kim Vo, MDes Narratives
Shiman Xu, MDes Narratives
Tristan Whalen, MDes Narratives
Chuchu Qi, MDes Publics