DrLeila Sheldrick

Dr Leila Sheldrick designs the methods, tools, and strategies organisations use to make better decisions about the future – combining strategic foresight, sustainable design, and systems thinking to turn long-term uncertainty into actionable innovation. She is Associate Professor and leads the Strategic Futures Design Lab at Imperial College London's Dyson School of Design Engineering.

- Research
Leila's research develops and tests methods for design practice that works for and with the future – frameworks that help designers, engineers, and organisations reason rigorously and act meaningfully on long-term, uncertain challenges. Her published toolkit includes the Design Pathfinder, for embedding sustainability into product development processes; a series of design futures methods for surfacing and interrogating assumptions about the future in design teams; and the Consumer Intervention Mapping framework, for designing future product strategies within circular product-service systems.
Current work applies these approaches, alongside traditional sustainable design engineering tools such as Life Cycle Assessment and Scenario Planning, to projects on future planetary heritage, sustainable electronic textiles, and futures-oriented assessment of AI risk – in collaboration with researchers spanning history, psychology, participatory futures, electronics, textiles, AI, and game theory.
She welcomes contact from researchers interested in interdisciplinary collaborations tackling the big problems of the future and those working on sustainable product and systems innovation, participatory foresight methods, or the future of design practice and education – whether for joint publications, grant applications, or PhD co-supervision.

- Industry
Leila works with organisations to convert long-term uncertainty into concrete design and innovation decisions. Recent engagements include a report for SSEN, 'Future Vulnerability in Energy Scenarios', exploring infrastructure investment options in net-zero transitions against multiple 2040 lifestyle driven scenarios; and a 'Designing Future Behaviours' workshop and seminar series with PepsiCo, backcasting behaviour-driven innovation from a set of lifestyle scenarios. She has also worked with Atkins, Rio Tinto, COMAC, Scottish Power, and Advantage Austria, among others, on sustainable product development, scenario planning, and systems innovation.
Engagements range from short strategic workshops and executive education packages to short research projects and extended collaborations – up to 3.5-year sponsored PhD projects.

- Education and supervision
Leila has supported the graduation of over 150 global design leaders, many of whom have gone on to win major innovation awards, launch startups, and shape design practice across sectors – the result of six years (2018–2024) directing Global Innovation Design (GID), a postgraduate course run jointly with the Royal College of Art, Keio University, Pratt Institute, Tsinghua University, and Nanyang Technological University. As a founding academic of the Dyson School of Design Engineering, she has developed eleven taught modules and co-led the creation of two MSc degrees.
She supervises PhD and MEng/MSc projects spanning sustainable manufacturing, digital customisation, intergenerational futures, and design for wellbeing, and is actively looking for students interested in these and related themes – get in touch to discuss a proposal.

- Work with me

There are many ways to collaborate:

• Academics & researchers: Interested in a joint project, grant application, or co-supervision around design futures methods or circular systems design? 
• Industry & innovation teams: Want to explore a scenario-planning workshop, sponsored research partnership, or consultancy engagement? 
• Prospective students: Considering a PhD? See our Departmental PhD Scholarships page for Leila’s most recent briefs, or get in touch to discuss proposing your own.

Email Leila directly, or see further details available here.