Tracks

HealthIT – Including Wellbeing and Ageing

Co-Chairs

Healthcare systems worldwide face monumental challenges in delivering quality care, contain rising costs and improve access to care for the broader population. Moreover, there is a growing emphasis on promoting health-conscious, dealing with the burden of the ageing societies and increasing general wellbeing amongst the population. In the light of recent technological advancements in Artificial Intelligence, sensors, harvesting, analyzing and aggregating data and the continuous trend towards interoperationalization across systems, HealthIT holds the potential to significantly improve the delivery of healthcare.

This track solicits design science research that provides solutions for HealthIT, Well-being and the challenges of the ageing population. Topics of interest include:

  • Mobile health solutions and digital assistants
  • The management of chronic diseases
  • HealthIT for the ageing population
  • Innovative measures to prevent diseases and/or promote healthy living
  • The application of Artificial Intelligence to healthcare issues
  • Patient-centered and improvements to evidence-based medicine

Emerging DSR Methods and Novel DSR Applications

Co-Chairs

Despite its rising popularity, Design Science Research (DSR) methods are still emerging—unlike those for other research paradigms which have matured over decades. We observe the application of DSR in diverse research streams and disciplines, from Information Systems (IS) and Entrepreneurship to Psychosocial Healthcare and Educational Design. In addition, DSR also deals with emerging technologies—such as generative artificial intelligence and digital twins—as its outcomes or support tools within its processes. Moreover, the DSR community demonstrates increasing interest in stakeholders’ involvement, particularly marginalized groups (children or people with cognitive disability), which challenges the existing engagement approaches. All these factors expand both the scope and the complexity of DSR, calling for methodological innovations and new ways to accumulate design knowledge for systematic reuse. This track welcomes conceptual and empirical works on novel methods, applications, outcomes and presentations of DSR.

Sustainable Development and Environmental Solutions

Co-Chairs

The Sustainable Development and Environmental Solutions Track invites manuscripts that are closely connected to solving the UN’s sustainable development challenges. These manuscripts should have the potential to impact society through a bottom-up approach in design science research, where local knowledge, cultural nuances, and specific environmental factors are integral to creating impactful solutions. Alternatively, they can focus on addressing decision-makers who have the power to drive large-scale, systemic change. Analyzing development goals from the SDG’s perspective shows the issues are complex, interrelated, and interdependent. The question no longer concerns whether IT can lead to development but how it can be applied most effectively and in a way that ensures value for society. We encourage solution-oriented submissions that can make immediate contributions to the sustainable practices adopted by organizations, societies, and individuals. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

  • Digital sustainability and design science
  • AI-driven sustainability solutions
  • Socio-technical-ecological system design
  • Design thinking for sustainability
  • Grassroots and bottom-up design approaches
  • Social media-enabled grassroots design
  • Localization of SDGs through design
  • Designing human-centered sustainability interventions
  • Behavior-focused system design to foster sustainable practices
  • Systemic change for sustainability transformations
  • Design science for sustainability policy innovation

Responsible Artificial Intelligence Design

Co-Chairs

This conference track invites contributions that focus on the design, development, and evaluation of AI systems that are reliable, responsible, and aligned with societal values. As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly integrated into various aspects of society, ensuring these systems operate reliably, transparently, and fairly is paramount. Particularly, high-consequence areas such as medicine, healthcare, security, etc., often struggle with uncertainty, explainability, and bias issues, leading to low adoption of AI innovations in real-life settings. We seek research addressing the challenges of integrating uncertainty management and explainability into the AI design process, including issues related to accountability, transparency, privacy, and inclusivity. We welcome interdisciplinary approaches that bridge technical AI development with insights from social sciences, law, philosophy, and ethics. This track aims to advance the understanding of how Design Science Research can contribute to AI systems that are not only innovative but also reliable, socially responsible, and beneficial to all stakeholders.

Data-Driven Design Science

Co-Chairs

In recent years, data-driven analytics applications have enabled significant value creation across various a wide variety of sectors. Rapid advances in machine learning and related techniques have simplified the process of deriving value from data, inviting enquiry from various academic disciplines. There exists significant potential for broadening the use of data to informing the design of IT artifacts and for expanding the application of data-driven analytics to a wider set of application contexts. Much potential exists for creating data-responsive artifacts, more personalized solutions for the artifacts’ users, and risk-reducing artifacts focused on prevention of negative outcomes rather than their treatment. Example topics of interest for this track are listed below. Work in data-driven analytics that extends beyond these areas is welcome as well.

  • Using data to streamline or optimize artifact design
  • Creation of artifacts that dynamically learn from data
  • Creation of techniques to reduce complexity of data without sacrificing performance
  • Extending existing analytics techniques or creating new methods of data analysis
  • Novel applications of data-driven methods across issues in personal, organizational, and societal contexts
  • Artifacts that address issues of bias or ethical concerns in analytics
  • Methods for addressing issues of information or data quality
  • Analytics techniques focused on unstructured data
  • Use of ontologies and taxonomies in analytics methods

Cybersecurity, Privacy, and Ethics

Co-Chairs

Cybersecurity and privacy threats as well as unresponsible and unethical advances of organizations are continuously on the news. Disruptive new technologies such as machine learning and generative artificial intelligence enable a change in the threat environment, which might not be easily solved with traditional approaches of complying with and enforcing information security policies, adopting technical controls, and training users to create awareness. Cybersecurity and privacy-related problems thus require new solutions that rely on research and practice, for instance relying on the creativity of humans and value co-creation between stakeholders.

These technologies also create novel ethical problems for organizations adopting them. While designing, implementing, and using digital technologies we need to ensure all phases target not only economic sustainability but ethical outcomes. This means that we need practical solutions for the design and implementation process that also consider the future and design science research can generate them.

Our track looks for research and theory-based solutions to problems related to cybersecurity, privacy, and ethics. Contributions to research-based solutions to these areas on individual, group, organizational, and societal levels are all welcome. Novel ideas, critical research, and studies applying futures thinking are especially interesting for the track.

Entrepreneurship and Innovation

Co-Chairs

The promise of design science for entrepreneurship and innovation scholars lies in its ability to help design local solutions for global challenges. The conference theme highlights the importance of creating solutions tailored to the unique needs and contexts of specific communities, while addressing broader global issues. The DESRIST 2025 track on ‘Entrepreneurship and Innovation’ invites high-quality design science submissions related to entrepreneurship and innovation management. We welcome both empirical and conceptual work that makes a strong contribution to the design knowledge base and offers significant practical value. Methodological contributions that provide guidance on conducting design science research in the fields of entrepreneurship and innovation are also encouraged. Please feel free to reach out to us in case of any questions regarding your submission.

Design Science Research Education

Co-Chairs

The DSR Education track is the premier forum for research, applications and experience reports on challenges and best practices in educating scholars and practitioners about DSR methods as well as using DSR for teaching and learning (Winter and vom Brocke 2021). As the reach of DSR grows, fundamental and practical lessons about DSR are still necessary for scholars and practitioners. Broadly, these audiences include: 

  •  Scholars interested in conducting/improving their conduct of DSR projects, 
  • Scholars interested in familiarizing themselves about DSR a research approach,
  • Scholars (across disciplines) interested in adding DSR to their repertoire,
  • Industry practitioners who may participate in DSR projects, and
  • Sscholars interested in applying DSR for improving education and pedagogy

The first mechanism to reach these audiences includes curricula in university settings (courses and doctoral seminars). Another mechanism is doctoral consortia in conferences. Yet another mechanism involves dissemination across disciplines via specialized conferences such as the DESRIST. There is a growing interest in and need for educating and using DSR in various disciplines for research, innovation and entrepreneurship (e.g. Romme 2003, Kuechler and Vaishnavi 2008, Winter 2014; Seckler et al. 2022). Researchers and industry partners who participate in DSR projects learn about DSR only as they engage with the research projects. Finally, while the applications of DSR to improve awareness, education and pedagogy are emerging (Steinherr et al. 2024) but the area remains nascent.

The continued presence of this track within DESRIST recognizes this enduring set of concerns. We invite contributions that offer guidance on educating different audiences about DSR norms and values, approaches and methods, and techniques and tools – to enable new and early career academics to conduct DSR according to high standards, and to enable industry partners to participate effectively in DSR projects. We further invite contributions that apply the DSR approach for addressing challenges in local educational settings and education systems globally. Examples of submissions include but are not limited to:

  • Reporting lessons learned from DSR courses at all advanced educational levels,
  • Analyzing specific DSR challenges and solutions in the context of research education,
  • Reporting foundational research on DSR competencies and skills,
  • Developing methods of teaching DSR competencies and skills,
  • Evaluating teaching and assessment methods in DSR education,
  • Reporting empirical studies describing DSR education in different contexts,
  • Reporting pedagogical approaches for DSR education,
  • Analyzing educational technologies for DSR education,
  • Educating industry partners about DSR approaches,
  • Describing applications of DSR for innovative education and pedagogy. 

Kuechler, W. and Vaishnavi, V., 2008. The emergence of design research in information systems in North America. Journal of Design Research, 7(1), pp.1-16.

Steinherr, V.M. et al. 2024, Design Science Research as a Guide for Innovative Higher Education Teaching.  International Conference on Design Science Research in Information Systems and Technology. Pp. 213-228. Springer.

Winter, R., 2014. Design Science Research in Business Research – with Special Emphasis on Information Systems. Zeitschrift für Berufs- und Wirtschaftspädagogik – Beihefte, 233-246.

Winter, R., vom Brocke, J., 2021. Teaching Design Science Research.  42th International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS 2021), Austin TX.

Seckler, C., Mauer, R., Brocke, J.v., 2022. Design Science in Entrepreneurship: Conceptual Foundations and Guiding Principles. Journal of Business Venturing Design forthcoming. 

Romme, A.G.L., 2003.  Making a Difference: Organization as Design. Organization Science 14, 558-573.