In this talk, Nick Dunn will share his design research journey over the years. From graduating in architecture to undertaking his initial forays into the world of research, he will explain what he has done and the motivations behind it as he embarked on a voyage of discovery from PhD to Professor. Nick will discuss the key shifts in the wider research landscape and how his work has run parallel to this, leading to his present position as Executive Director of Imagination, the design-led research lab at Lancaster University. He will then highlight some of the current projects he is working on and contextualise these within the wider work being done by the Imagination team to demonstrate what they do, how, and why. To conclude, Nick will share his perspectives on the role of design research in today’s world and how it can respond to the many global challenges of our time.