Dr Francesco Mazzarella is AHRC Design Leadership Fellow Research Associate at ImaginationLancaster, with the aim to support design research for change. He is also a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the Centre for Sustainable Fashion (CSF) – a University of the Arts London (UAL) research centre based at London College of Fashion (LCF).

Francesco is a fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), and member of Mode Uncut, an international network aimed at activating disruptive fashion modes and practices. In 2018 Francesco was awarded a PhD from the AHRC Design Star CDT at Loughborough Design School; his doctoral research project explored how service design can be used to activate textile artisan communities to transition towards a sustainable future. Previously, Francesco was awarded a BSc in Industrial Design (Product Design) and an MSc in Ecodesign, both from the Politecnico di Torino in Italy. He has also been an exchange student at the University of Twente (the Netherlands) and at the Minas Gerais State University (Brazil).