Those Focus Areas are Built on Existing Skill Sets to Foster #impactbydesign.

By embedding values of responsibility, inclusivity, and sustainability into the pan-European design practice, MADres empowers design professionals to drive transformation and innovation in combination with business cases.

To achieve this, MADres creates the products and actions necessary to foster a prosperous and sustainable future. For long-term impact, MADres aims to develop a Living Design Policy Framework—a flexible, adaptive model that asks our governments and institutions to integrate design into national and EU-level policy agendas.

Your Opportunities

As a Designer, educator, or creative citizen, you will soon find the project’s first products here – such as playbooks, actions, and coaching opportunities. Stay informed.

Do you, as an expert, have professional and/or academic knowledge in one of our core objectives? We have an interesting opportunity for you. It includes being part of a fascinating top-tier network, meeting some of the most interesting design protagonists, creating business opportunities and travelling within Europe.

Benefits for BEDA Members

As a member organisation of the BEDA, you will benefit from direct access to services provided by MADres. It ranges from priority access to the Glorious 42 international expert pool, four funded national policy labs, train-the-trainer workshops and the acceleration programme for your members or designers you represent.

If you are not a member of BEDA but want to profit from MADres, contact office@BEDA.org for further information.

Why MADres?

BEDA has a clear vision: for Design to be embraced in Europe as a driver for sustainable growth and prosperity. MADres, a strategic initiative by BEDA and co-funded by the European Union, works to realise this vision by strengthening the design community throughout Europe.

MADres builds on existing skills and supports additional skillsets in today’s key areas, such as digital ethics, planetary design, and accessibility.

These fields are not just technical—they’re vital to foster responsible, inclusive design practices that support Europe’s competitiveness and sustainable growth.

To make those efforts stick, MADres aims to develop a political framework that strengthens design and its methodologies at both national and European levels. This includes advocating for a more flexible and responsive policy environment—one that acknowledges the sociological, economic, and ecological challenges of our time and uses design as a key enabler of systemic change. In doing so, MADres not only empowers individual design practitioners but also reinforces the strategic value of design in shaping Europe’s future.