Professor Chris Speed FRSE is Professor of Design for Regenerative Futures at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia where he collaborates with a wide variety of communities and partners to explore how design offers methods to adapt towards becoming a regenerative society. Chris has an established track record in directing large, complex grants and educational programmes with academic, industry, and third-sector partners, applying design and data methods to social, environmental, and economic challenges.

Prior to joining RMIT University, Chris was Director of the Edinburgh Futures Institute, overseeing the transformation of the Old Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, a Florence Nightingale hospital in the centre of Edinburgh, into a world-leading centre for interdisciplinary teaching, research, and innovation. Chris also led the development and leadership of the Institute for Design Informatics, home to a combination of researchers working across the fields of design, social science, and data science, as well as the PhD, MA/MFA, MSc, and Advanced MSc programmes. His publications are associated with the many collaborative research projects he has led and been a part of, spanning sectors such as design research, the digital economy, creative industries, and human-computer interaction.

Chris was the Founding Director of the £7.4m Creative Informatics R&D Partnership, one of the nine AHRC-funded Creative Industries Clusters in the UK (2018-2024). He maintains ties to research projects with partners across the UK and Europe, including being a former Co-I for the Next Stage Digital Economy Centre DECaDE, led by Surrey with the Digital Catapult (2019-2025).