As a PhD candidate I wish to contribute to the design of sustainable animal production systems. There is currently a complex challenge to be sustainable on all aspects in animal production, this includes animal, people, planet and profit. This complexity arises when trying to unify all the different needs and requirements of the involved; animal, humans and environment, in the design process of sustainable animal production systems. Often trade-offs occur, in this situation one benefits while other aspects have to deal with negative consequences. For example keeping animals outdoors benefits the animals but has negative effects on the environment. Challenge is to create and further develop a design approach that can account for different stakeholders and their different needs and requirements and is able to overcome current persisting trade-offs.

My specific PhD mission is to improve and elaborate on the Reflexive Interactive Design (RIO) approach in order to structure and guide the design process to unify heterogeneous needs and overcome trade-offs. Specific interest is given to the role of the animal in this process. By acknowledging the animal as an actor adds to the design complexity. Moreover, when given the animal an active role in the system and giving control to the animal over its environment, we speculate that this can contribute to positive animal welfare as well as improving on other sustainability goals. However, this majorly increases the complexity of the design methodology. My task is to provide in design tools and insights to guide and structure this complex challenge of designing for sustainable animal production systems.

Mission is to come to solutions for animal husbandry systems that benefits and fits all the involved; animal, humans and  environment. Coming to solutions that ispositive for all actors is a complex challenge. I hope to contribute to a sustainable development by developing a design methodology that can unify all the needs and requirements of different actors and overcome trade-offs.