ICOS Service Designer Mariana Salgado receives recognition from Finnish design organisation Ornamo
ICOS Service Designer Mariana Salgado has received the respectable "Design Forerunner" recognition from the Finnish design organisation Ornamo. The award recognises Salgado’s work in bringing design into climate research and supporting people’s participation in the sustainability transition. At ICOS, she has worked on mapping user needs and developing new service concepts.
Mariana Salgado joined ICOS in 2024, and is based at the Head Office in Helsinki, Finland.
"Together with my colleagues, I design services that turn complex research data into practical tools that support climate action, decision-making, and a more sustainable future," Salgado explains. Through this work, the research perspective becomes more visible in climate action and climate-related decisions.
Designing for research infrastructure is still fairly new territory. Salgado’s first years at ICOS have gone into the groundwork of mapping user needs and developing service concepts. One of her current projects, IRISCC, for example, uses a Service Design Labs approach to co-create new solutions. Salgado’s also working in the ENVRINNOV project.
"ICOS is the first research infrastructure to hire a service designer, even though many infrastructures build services of their own. I want my work to show the value that design can bring to climate action", she says.
Alongside her work at ICOS, Salgado publishes a weekly design podcast, Diseño y Diáspora, to thousands of listeners around the world, teaches occasionally at universities, including in her native Argentina, and helps coordinate a network of designers working in public administration in Finland.
"I've often had to spell out, very concretely, everything service designers can do inside organisations and where their skills can be put to use. I want to show how valuable design expertise is from a strategic point of view," Salgado says.
Spreading knowledge that makes a difference
The Finnish design organisation Ornamo's award jury highlighted design’s ability to strengthen people’s opportunities to understand, participate and make an impact.
"Service designer Mariana Salgado is recognized for her exceptionally impactful and wide-ranging work in advancing social and ecological sustainability. Particularly commendable is Salgado’s work to promote people’s participation and engagement in the sustainability transition: sustainable practices emerge when people are able to take part in the change and feel a sense of ownership over it. In addition, the jury valued Salgado’s international advocacy work and the Diseño y Diáspora podcast, which strengthen the role of design as a tool for societal change", the jury wrote.
"My job is to make sure the knowledge researchers produce is actually usable by others. Services create real added value when they help people understand environmental problems, support policy decisions, or open the door to new research", Mariana Salgado says.
“Research-based knowledge is essential, for example, in decision-making. At ICOS, we do our best to ensure that information is available to different users at the right time, in an accessible and user-friendly way, and as widely as possible. Thanks to Mariana’s professional expertise, ICOS and the entire environmental research community have taken steps in the right direction. I am very pleased that her expertise is widely recognised among other professionals,” comments Hannele Laine, Director General of ICOS.