Contemporary societal, environmental, economic, and technological challenges require profound systemic transitions involving close collaboration between diverse stakeholders (Ferraro et al., 2015). Typically, achieving the United Nations’ SDGs calls for collaborative approaches integrating policymakers, firms, local agencies, and citizens (Mazzucato, 2021). While designed to be “integrated and indivisible”, the SDGs are still often cherry-picked and treated in isolation, calling for stronger collaborations across organizations and policy domains (Bogers et al., 2023). Understanding these transitions as complex socio-technical processes highlights the need for new governance mechanisms, innovation processes, and design strategies that embrace uncertainty, mutual learning, and adaptability (Ferraro et al., 2015; Brammer et al., 2019; Mazzucato, 2021).

In this context, co-design emerges as a pivotal approach enabling collaborative knowledge production, alignment of multiple interests, and co-creation of actionable solutions in contexts characterized by complexity and long-term change. Co-design can be understood as a participatory innovation approach supporting iterative engagement between diverse stakeholders and the co-evolution of problems and solutions (Steen, 2013). It has been explored in various contexts, such as social innovation (Manzini, 2022), creative communities (Dubois, 2015), health (Vandekerckhove et al., 2020), public services (Trischler et al., 2018), sustainable fashion (Hur & Beverley, 2013) and the space industry (Barbier et al., 2022; Azoulay et al., 2024). Across these domains, co-design enhances innovation outcomes in terms of novelty and user benefit by actively involving users as designers in the innovation process. It also fosters trust, adaptability, and mutual learning among stakeholders with diverse expertise (Barbier et al., 2022) and even conflicting goals (Guerineau, 2022). These studies also highlight the potential of co-design to bridge distant stakeholders, communities, and socio-technical systems. When carefully managed, co-design delivers effective solutions to multi-stakeholder problems (Dubois et al., 2024) and stands as a relevant approach to support contemporary transitions. Scholars underline its methodological flexibility and its capacity to generate value across varied domains, offering insights into collaboration, prototyping, and iterative development (Sanders & Stappers, 2014). Existing research thus provides solid foundations for addressing the collaborative challenges of transitions, where complexity, uncertainty, and diversity are central.

However, significant gaps remain in understanding how co-design can best support these transitions. Key questions include: How can co-design contribute to achieving the SDGs? What governance forms best sustain co-design for transitions? How can co-design inform sustainable policymaking? This track invites research addressing these gaps and advancing theoretical and
practical understanding of co-design in transition contexts. We welcome studies exploring the co-design of innovations for environmental sustainability, technological transition, digital transformation, societal change, and economic development. Research examining co-design across or at the interface of multiple SDGs is particularly encouraged. Topics may include participatory governance models, stakeholder engagement processes, collaborative innovation practices, and mechanisms for managing trade-offs and tensions among diverse actors. This track aims to provide a forum for advancing co-design research and offering practical guidance for organizations and communities addressing urgent societal challenges. Empirical, conceptual, and methodological contributions are encouraged, particularly those showing how co-design fosters resilient, inclusive, and sustainable transitions amid uncertainty, technological disruption, and environmental pressure