Rowan Conway

Rowan Conway is a Visiting Professor of Strategic Design at the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP), where she leads the Transformation by Design module of the MPA in Innovation, Public Policy, and Public Value. She previously collaborated with Professor Mariana Mazzucato to co-lead the Mission Oriented Innovation Network (MOIN), engaging global institutions like the Scottish Government, Vinnova, OECD, and UNDP in mission-driven design projects.

• Current Role: Policy Fellow and Visiting Professor at UCL IIPP
• Prior Affiliation: Director of Innovation at the Royal Society of Arts (RSA)
• Education: MSc in Responsibility and Business Practice (University of Bath), PhD Candidate at UCL IIPP

Her research integrates strategic design with policy-making, focusing on mission-oriented innovation and public value creation. She emphasizes co-creation between policy actors and researchers, applying experimental methodologies to real-world challenges in economics, governance, and sustainable systems.

Rowan founded the design studio Transformation by Design Ltd and serves as a Non-Executive Director at Live Work, a global service design agency. At RSA, she established the RSA Lab, pioneering design-driven action research programs on topics like the future of work, deliberative democracy, and tech-society interactions.