Het Nieuwe Instituut founded the International Materials & Design Network to organize collaborative projects with international partner organisations, to enable knowledge exchange on innovation in materials, design and sustainability and to support talented Dutch designers to expand their international networks

Eighteen designers have been selected for the New Material Award 2016 and was presented during Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven. This biennial award challenges artists and designers to apply and develop sustainable materials and innovative technologies. 

Round N Around is a collaborative research project between the University of Applied Sciences in Amsterdam (HVA citizen data lab), the University of São Paulo and Het Nieuwe Instituut. With the support of local biker communities, the project aims to explore the technologies developed for the measurement and analysis of data on the user experience of bike paths in the city of São Paulo. Cyclists, researchers and public managers contributed to an ecology and encourage the use of bike lanes in the city. 

This autumn Het Nieuwe Instituut is initiating a series of dialogues in which young architects from the Netherlands and Flanders discuss their design practice in relation to four themes. The dialogues take place within the framework of the exhibition ‘Maatwerk – Massarbeit’ at the Deutsches Architekturmuseum, for which Het Nieuwe Instituut has provided material on loan.