Sustainability and Innovation in Creative Industries and Design

Guest Editors

  • Stefan Greuter, RMIT University, Australia
  • Ali Alraouf, Hamed bin Khalifa University, Qatar
  • Fatma Al Aamri, University of Technology and Applied Sciences, Oman

Important dates

  • Submission deadline: February 20th, 2026
  • Notification to the authors: May 15th, 2026
  • Camera ready paper: June 15th, 2026
  • Publication of the special issue: Summer 2026 (tentative)

Overview

This special issue is concerned with the interconnection between sustainability, innovation, and design practices, in particular for creative industries. It calls for papers that address design methodologies as fundamental to sustainable innovation, not only in products and services but also in education and cultural change. We welcome interdisciplinary perspectives that explore how creative industries can lead the way in mainstreaming sustainability through methodological rigor and pedagogical innovation. Contributions should critically examine how design thinking and educational frameworks can foster sustainable transformation across diverse cultural and technological contexts..

Topics of Interest

We invite a broad range of researchers to address both theoretical and practical issues around democratic technology design, including conceptual papers, methodological innovations, empirical case studies, design exemplars, and critical reflections.

Submissions may address (but are not limited to) the following themes:

• Sustainable design practices and design thinking as catalysts for innovation
• Education and training for sustainable design and innovation
• Community-driven and participatory design for sustainability
• The role of digital technologies in enabling sustainable creative practices and design methodologies.
• Metrics and evaluation frameworks for sustainability in design methodologies and education.
• Cross-cultural perspectives on sustainability and innovation in design education

Target Audience

This issue is intended for researchers, educators, practitioners, and policymakers working at the intersection of design, sustainability, and innovation. We especially encourage submissions from interdisciplinary teams and early-career researchers.

Submission procedure 

All submissions must be original and not under review elsewhere.
Manuscripts should be submitted anonymized either in .doc or in .pdf format.
All papers will be blindly peer-reviewed by at least two reviewers. Prospective participants are invited to submit an 8-20 pages paper (including authors’ information, abstract, tables, figures, and references).
Papers should be written according to the IxD&A authors’ guidelines .
Submission page -> link
(when submitting the paper please choose the section: ‘SI: Sustainability and Innovation in Creative Industries and Design‘)

For scientific advice and for any query please contact the guest editors:
• stefan [dot] greuter [at] rmit [dot] edu [dot] au
• aalrauf [at] hbku [dot] edu [dot] qa
• fatma [dot] alaamri [at] utas [dot] edu [dot] om
marking the subject as: IxD&A special issue on ‘Sustainability and Innovation in Creative Industries and Design’‘.