Conference “Design for Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI)”: a significant milestone for the EDIDesK project

On 19 February 2026, the conference “Design for Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI)” took place at the Faculty of Architecture and Design of the Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava, in a hybrid format, bringing together 144 participants, including 80 onsite and 64 online.

The event was organised by AccessibleEU and the Faculty of Architecture and Design STU, in cooperation with the partner universities of the EDIDesK project  - “Open Access Contents on Design for Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion for Higher Education Programmes” - funded by the Erasmus+ programme (KA220-HED) of the European Union.

The conference represented an important opportunity to share perspectives, methods and experiences related to the integration of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) into design education and practice. The programme featured contributions from project partners in Italy, Poland, Spain and Slovakia, covering different disciplinary areas, including system design, industrial design, architecture, product design and digital design.

The event also marked an important step forward for the EDIDesK project, as it contributed to the dissemination and discussion of the outcomes of WP3 – “Development of an EU framework on ‘Design for EDI’ and pilot tests with students and stakeholders”. The strong participation and engagement confirmed the relevance of the project’s objectives and the growing interest in inclusive approaches within higher education and design-related fields.

On the day following the conference, project partners also held an internal meeting and workshop to begin the validation phase of the digital platform developed within WP4 – Design and implementation of an open access digital learning platform on “Design for EDI. his working session represented another key milestone in the project, supporting the development of an open-access digital environment aimed at enhancing learning and teaching on Design for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion.

The conference and the subsequent internal workshop highlighted the collaborative effort of all partners and reinforced the project’s commitment to fostering more inclusive educational frameworks and tools for higher education.

Further updates on the EDIDesK project, including the finalisation of WP3 and the progress of WP4, will be shared soon.