Role
James Meadwell joined Nottingham Trent University in September 2018 as a Senior Research Fellow in Design and helped establish the Design Matter research group, a product design and research group investigating approaches to New Product Development.
His role is primarily to engage with businesses on their new product development projects, working as a hands-on Product Design Engineer, a Design Project Manager or adviser depending on the nature of the project.
James’ work nurtures links between academia and industry ensuring both parties can benefit from the shared knowledge exchanged during a product development project.
James’ research outputs stem from the design projects he works on and he has published or has been co-author on work which explores the practice of product design and work that explores the design of a specific product/product group.
James is currently actively involved in multiple design projects either as Lead Designer or Project Manager under the Impacting business by Design programme.
James is experienced as working as PI on research projects and as a Design Consultant to Industry.
Career overview
James graduated from the University of Central England in 2000 and has forged a career in Design Engineering and Design/Project Management.
He gained 14 years of experience in industry as a Product Designer, a Design Manager and Project Manager before moving into academia in 2014.
His first academic role was as a Senior Research Fellow/Product Design Engineer for the Design Unit, a Design research group based at De Montfort University where he was involved in design projects for blue chip companies such as BT plus many SMEs. James regularly taught on the BSc and BA product design courses at DMU.
James has worked on products as diverse as award winning healthcare products, heavy machinery for the metals industry for clients such as Samsung and Alcoa, light framed steel buildings for a joint venture between Redrow and Corus, furniture for clients including John Lewis and innovative medical devices.
Research areas
- Design for Healthcare
- Design of Medical Devices
- Design for Arthritis
- Design of Machinery
- Consumer Product Design
- Design Education
- Design within SMEs
- Furniture engineering
External activity
Member of Institute of Engineering Designers (MIED)