Fellowships
Future Island–Island fellowships create space for researchers, designers, artists and creative practitioners to collaborate, experiment and learn. Through place-based projects and shared making, fellows contribute fresh perspectives, practical experimentation and creative thinking across themes including sustainability, heritage, materials and environmental transition.
To date, fellowship opportunities have connected local, national and international practitioners through creative exchange, collaboration and experimentation.
Design Fellowships 2025
These competitive, funded opportunities supported practitioners, researchers, and changemakers to co-create practical solutions for sustainability through themes like circular design, eco-tourism, digital innovation, and civic engagement. Fellows collaborated with expert co-investigators to deliver purpose-driven outcomes that balance human and environmental needs.
Creative Rathlin | Connecting Islands
Creative Rathlin supported island residents and creatives to turn local ideas, concerns and ambitions into collaborative projects. Shaped by everyday experience of island life, the fellowship explored themes including sustainability, tourism, waste and community wellbeing.
Regenerative Rathlin | Field Operations
Regenerative Rathlin was an open design competition inviting creatives from different disciplines to respond to environmental challenges and opportunities on Rathlin Island. Participants developed ideas shaped by the realities of island and coastal life. The competition culminated in a week-long residential on Rathlin Island in October 2024, where finalists worked alongside island residents, researchers and sustainability practitioners to further develop and test their proposals.
DesignLink | A Model for Co-Design
DesignLink brought emerging designers and organisations together through collaborative, design-led projects. Focused on real-world environmental and social challenges, the programme created opportunities for early-stage creatives to gain practical experience while encouraging shared learning, experimentation and new approaches to innovation for participating organisations.