Professor Matthew Lievesley

Professor

School: Design Arts and Creative Industries

ADSS Matthewbranch Staffprofile 255

With a strong track-record of forming productive partnerships, Matthew works with a range of research and innovation funders to help companies and public-sector organisations benefit from the Design School’s knowledge and expertise.

Trained in both design and business, I manage research and design projects across disciplines, from digital-media through product and brand and into service design. As challenging as that variety can be, I think it’s a great privilege. Improving how users interact with the made world is what it’s all about.

A key area of my activity centres around innovation in business, particularly understanding how design practices and methods drive innovation in such settings. I’m also the School’s lead on KTP, a funded industry-facing programme that helps organisations to adopt and integrate design and innovation in-house.

For more information on KTPs please click here

A second significant area of my research focuses on innovation in Healthcare, through Service Design approaches/methods. For example, this has included developing improved care-pathways for people with Type II Diabetes and better-equipped clinicians advising those people and their carers/loved-ones.

My collaborators in this area of research include: Newcastle University Medical School, AgeUK, Hitachi, Newcastle City Council, NESTA, NHS (healthcare service design), Salford Royal and NIHR.

Prior to joining Northumbria University, I held positions in Design and Product Management in Manufacturing Industry, analysing market opportunities and managing design programmes from a human-centred perspective, from inception to market launch. My experience to date encompasses over forty products and services in production, encompassing national and international Patents and Design Registrations.

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Research Themes and Scholarly Interests

Research Interests

My research articulates how Design's human-centred approach contributes to change, improvement and impact in different settings. These themes are explored chiefly through a practice-based approach within partner organisations, where competition, compromise, risk and pragmatics are all at play. I work with public, commercial and social sector partners, particularly in the Health and Care sector. For example:

Public and Social Sector Innovation: I currently lead research and practice-based programmes concerning Person-Centred Healthcare, mapping and improving pathways through the disjointed health and wellbeing landscape. This research is driven through a co-design, participatory approach, which invests time in understanding and collaboratively improving the experiences of staff-teams, patients and their carers. My collaborators in this research include: AgeUK, Hitachi, NESTA, NHS Trusts (healthcare service design), Tiny Lives Trust, EPSRC (humanising health-tech) and NIHR (co-design methods).

Commercial Sector Innovation: I led a programme of activity to embed customer-centric innovation approaches into Parker Hannifin Corp., the world's biggest filtration company. This partnership was graded outstanding by the funder: InnovateUK, and led the company to launch new product lines and win its first Red Dot design award. I also support small firms in healthtech and other sectors (inc. funding via InnovateUK/ KTN and the UK Treasury's Help to Grow: Management programme).

Research Student Supervision Interests

Health & Care Co-design; Design for Person-Centred Healthcare; Design for Behaviour Change; Healthcare Service Design; Design-led Innovation

Key Publications

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
Identifying General Practice workforce patterns in England: a machine learning to support Evidence-Based health and social care policy, Erfani, G., Burford, B., Montgomery, A., Bhattarai, N., Hoverd, E., Chen, K., Brown, M., Steven, A., Vance, G., Tomietto, M., Park, S., Lievesley, M., Van der Graaf, P., Rapley, T. 18 Jun 2026, International Scientific Conference “The Quality of Health Care and Social Welfare – Education and Practice”. 14.05.2026–15.05.2026, Jūrmala, Latvia. Scientific Abstracts and Articles, University of Latvia
Understanding the primary-secondary care interface and its impact on workforce sustainability: a realist review protocol, Hoverd, E., Brown, M., Burford, B., Chen, K., Erfani, G., Kehoe, M., Lievesley, M., Livingston, R., Montgomery, A., Norton, J., Rapley, T., Roberts, N., Sajid, M., Steven, A., Thomson, R., Vance, G., Park, S. 2 Jun 2026, In: BJGP Open
Batch 45: Design for Industry 2020 - 2024, Hewitt, I., Parkinson, D., Wong, R., Forsyth, A., Scott-Harden, S., Fenwick, H., Lievesley, M., Dylan, T. 12 May 2025
Understanding the contextual and causal factors shaping the work of receptionists in general practice: A realist review protocol, Hoverd, E., Brown, M., Burford, B., Chen, K., Erfani, G., Hassan, S., Montgomery, A., Lievesley, M., Nortin, J., Owen-Boukra, E., Rapley, T., Roberts, N., Sajid, M., Sowden, S., Steven, A., Vance, G., Park, S. 23 Dec 2025, In: BMJ Open
Batch 44: Design for Industry 2019 - 2023, Hewitt, I., Parkinson, D., Wong, R., Forsyth, A., Scott-Harden, S., Fenwick, H., Lievesley, M., Dylan, T. 15 Jan 2024
Co-designing resources to empower the families of preterm infants: from hospital to home, Lievesley, M., Marcroft, C., Collum, R., Adams, J. 26 Jun 2024, Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Design4Health, Sheffield, Sheffield Hallam University
Home Tips for Mobile: hiccups and bumps you might encounter in your first few weeks at home, Adams, J., Marcroft, C., Collum, R., Lievesley, M. 25 Jun 2024
Home Tips: hiccups and bumps you might encounter in your first few weeks at home, Marcroft, C., Collum, R., Lievesley, M. 19 Sep 2024
Design for Health Ageing: 2-hour Masterclass: Curriculum Development and delivery, Lievesley, M. 22 Feb 2023
Batch 43: Design for Industry 2018 - 2022, Hewitt, I., Parkinson, D., Wong, R., Forsyth, A., Scott-Harden, S., Fenwick, H., Lievesley, M., Dylan, T. 26 Sep 2022

Current and Recent Projects

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
Fatigue in the healthcare workforce : a staff and patient safety issue, Steven, A. (Principal Investigator), Lievesley, M. (Co Investigator), RIS Internal Funding, 01/11/23 - 31/10/24, £12,451.00
Northern Health Futures Hub, Wilson, R. (Principal Investigator), Lievesley, M. (Co Investigator), Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, 01/10/23 - 31/07/27, £256,044.00
Help to Grow Management 2021-2024, Wales, J. (Principal Investigator), Lievesley, M. (Co Investigator), Chartered Association for Business Scholars, 01/09/21 - 31/03/28, £2,310,820.00
Small Business Leadership Programme, Sutherland, M. (Principal Investigator), Lievesley, M. (Co Investigator), Chartered Association for Business Scholars, 01/10/20 - 31/03/21, £499,668.00
Project Kielder, Lievesley, M. (Principal Investigator), Reckitt Benckiser, 01/01/20 - 30/04/20, 0.00
Understanding Parents' experiences of Neonatal Care, Lievesley, M. (Principal Investigator), Tiny Lives Trust, 01/10/19 - 31/03/20, £16,550.00
Development of a laundry stain identification and removal process, Nicholson, K. (Principal Investigator), Lievesley, M. (Co Investigator), Innovate UK, 01/09/18 - 31/08/21, £259,645.00
Development and refinement of a STroke-friendly Oral health Promoting (STOP) tool-kit to improve oral self-care practices after discharge from hospital stroke services, Lievesley, M. (Principal Investigator), National Institute for Health Research, 04/09/17 - 03/09/19, £45,196.00
RELAY: Fire Team Communications Equipment, Lievesley, M. (Principal Investigator), Draeger Safety UK Limited, 16/01/17 - 01/03/17, £10,400.00
NTW Plus, Lievesley, M. (Principal Investigator), Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust, 15/06/16 - 30/07/16, £2,119.00

Professional Activity

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
Invited talk: Family Experiences of Neonatal Care: Co-Design and Piloting of Resources to Promote Positive Family Experiences. 2022
Invited talk: The Growth Department - Design Management Institute ADMC 2016 2016

Qualifications