The Audi Design Foundation is an independent charity established in 1997 by Audi UK.
Its aim is to encourage and empower designers by supporting and promoting designs that create a positive change in people's lives.
The Foundation offers a wide range of opportunities to enable designers to progress innovative design and since its inception has awarded over £650,000 in grants.
If you would like to find out more about our previous grant recipients, please click here.
In addition to providing grants, the Foundation has been responsible for several major awards programmes. The prestigious 'Audi Young Designer of the Year Award' gave students aged between 16-20 years the chance to showcase their talents and launch their careers in the design industry.
A second national programme, the 'Audi Innovation Awards' focused on the work of design students aged between 11-14 years and was made up of a series of curriculum-based design challenges.
2004 saw the launch of 'Designs of Substance', a widely acclaimed global initiative that saw final year students from Brunel University working to improve the quality of life for communities in the favelas (shanty towns) of Rio de Janeiro.
Three universities took part in the 2005 initiative; Brunel, Ravensbourne and Nottingham Trent. The focus that year was on Khayelitsha, a township near Cape Town in South Africa. The three winning students visited the community in South Africa that would potentially benefit from their designs.
In 2007, the event is bigger than ever; five universities (Kingston, Ravensbourne, Middlesex, Lincoln and Nottingham Trent) are taking part and UNICEF are helping us to identify the community who will set the briefs and will greatly assist with communications between the UK and South Africa.
As it enters its tenth anniversary year, the Foundation is embracing new themes around sustainable and inclusive design with the re-launch of its grants programme 'Designs for Life'.