Earlier this month D4D were involved in judging the entrants to a competition run in collaboration between Arthritis Research UK and the Design Council; we were invited to join the panel due to our expertise around the development of assistive and rehabilitative technologies. 

This year the partnership invited applicants to submit designs for products to help people with a musculoskeletal condition to live well and push back the limits of arthritis.

The competition offered successful applicants up to £15,000 and 16 weeks of support through bespoke mentoring and workshops. The winners of this year’s competition will be announced later this year in the summer, and we will follow their development with interest.

The competition has produced valuable concepts in previous years, and we hope this year’s winning concepts prove similarly useful to people living their lives. Last year’s winners were Handy Fasteners, who developed a service to retrofit shirts with magnetic buttons making dressing and undressing easier without the need to struggle with fiddly buttons, and Ezi-plug. The Ezi-plug is a highly commended, ergonomically designed plug and socket. Both products have been on display recently at the NEW OLD exhibition in the Design Museum in London, which finished on 19 February.