Second call for tender Power of Design and Transitions now open for project ideas

How can the creative industry, through the development of interventions and applications, increasingly contribute to enabling change, guiding change and accelerating transitions?

The second call of Power of Design and Transitions is open for project ideas. This call focuses on projects that conduct design research that focuses on a knowledge question from design practice. The research will work to develop interventions for transitions, while also developing knowledge that helps to better design for change. Think of designs to open up people's attitudes around change, designing from public values with application of new technologies, or designing environments that motivate specific behaviors. Or cohesive interventions that reinforce each other's impact within tasks such as healthcare, sustainability and safety.

Do you have a pressing question? We encourage you to post your practice question on the bulletin board and come to the matchmaking on June 30! The closing date for the mandatory pre-registration is September 25. Project ideas can be submitted until November 6, 2025 12:00 am.

Go directly to the new call

In order to design effectively for transitions and thus be able to intervene in a targeted manner, more knowledge and methods are needed. This includes knowledge about current systems in order to understand and influence them, knowledge about motivating people and getting them to take action, doing justice to public values and maintaining an overview of the big picture. The knowledge and methods needed in design practice must be developed and tested.

The Design Power & Transitions programme offers creative professionals, knowledge institutions and organisations operating in the field of social challenges a unique opportunity to conduct research as equal partners. In the projects, they work on questions from design practice that concern the development of interventions for transitions. Together, they conduct design-based research in which they develop directions for change, design interventions and, at the same time, learn how to do this even better, with answers to practical questions.

By joining forces to develop the requested interventions, everyone's efforts reinforce each other. The involvement of creative professionals helps the problem owners in their ambitions to successfully steer and accelerate transitions. Knowledge institutions are responsible for the development of knowledge itself, and the collaboration ensures that they are working on relevant knowledge and that the knowledge developed is put into practice. The knowledge developed helps creative professionals to deepen their expertise and broaden their services. In this way, the programme gives impetus to strengthening the creative industry and making our society more resilient.

With call #2, the program offers project teams the opportunity to conduct a design research project. A total of €3,250,000 in grants is available for the second call for proposals. The call seeks five collaborative projects starting between June and December 2026. Each project can receive a maximum of €650,000 in surcharge. This includes a mandatory private co-financing of at least 20%.

Process

The call for proposals for Power of Design & Transitions II consists of two phases. In the first phase, project teams submit a project idea. After this, a selection is made of five high-quality project ideas that complement each other. In the second phase, this selection then develops their idea into a complete project plan. CLICKNL offers support in the form of funding for networking events, sparring sessions with the programme council and guidance from the programme team.

Important dates

• June 2, 2025: online bulletin board live for sharing practice questions, project ideas and finding partners
• June 30, 2025: Mix and matchmaking event in Utrecht
• September 25, 2025: mandatory pre-registration
• November 6, 2025 at noon: deadline for submitting project ideas

Documents

The formats below must be used for pre-registration, submission of project ideas and submission of project plans. After downloading, completed formats can be sent to ontwerpkracht@clicknl.nl. Please take into account the limits set in the formats.

• Phase 1 - Submission of pre-registration until 25 September 2025 at 12:00:

  • Pre-registration format

• Phase 1 - Submission of project idea until 6 November 2025 at 12:00:

  • Project idea format
  • Letter of Intent Format

• Phase 2 - Submission of project plan until 9 April 2026 at 12:00:

  • Project plan format (will follow soon)
  • Project budget format
  • Collaboration agreement format

• In addition, the appendix: Conditions and explanation O&T II is important.

Note that the formats are in Dutch.

WOULD YOU LIKE TO KNOW MORE?

For consultation, further explanation of the conditions, help finding partners or to have a project idea, project plan and/or budget checked prior to submission (preliminary assessment), you can email ontwerpkracht@clicknl.nl.

The projects from edition I

Be inspired by the five projects that have been honored within solicitation #1. Below are the five selected projects. Click on the links and read more!

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