**Event Details:** - **Date:** Thursday, 25 April 2024 - **Time:** 13.00 CEST - **Location:** Online In the third edition of the Innovation Series, host Lucy Mills dives into "design thinking" with Dr. Fiona Chambers, a renowned education, sport, and innovation leader, design thinking coach, and founder of the first global innovation competition in sport. Design thinking is a problem-solving approach that emphasises empathy, creativity, and iterative processes to develop innovative solutions. But what does that actually mean? What does it involve? What are excellent examples of design thinking in action? And why is design thinking so relevant and effective for sport for development? As practitioners looking to innovate for greater social reach and impact, this is a unique learning opportunity not to be missed! **About Dr Fiona Chambers** \ Based in Cork in Ireland, Fiona is a senior leader in higher education with 30+ years global experience in education, sport and innovation. She is a Senior Lecturer/Associate Professor at University College Cork in Ireland. For Fiona, the triple intensity point of her teaching, research and civic engagement is always about social impact. \ \ Fiona is a teacher educator, a Hasso Plattner Institute certified design thinking coach, and a LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® facilitator. Fiona is the co-founder of the Postgraduate Diploma in Innovation through Design Thinking at University College Cork, which is funded by the Irish Government to upskill the Irish workforce in innovation practice. During the pandemic she founded the first global innovation competition for sport - the Global Design Challenge for Sport and Physical Activity, which has UNESCO patronage. The GDC crowdsources ideas for incubation and impact using design thinking and has the support of global organisations across the innovation journey. \ \ Fiona is the elected President of AIESEP (Association Internationale des Écoles Supérieures d’Éducation Physique) and elected Vice President of CEREPS (the European Research Council for Physical Education and School Sport). She was the recent winner of the 2023 Irish Sport Industry Awards inaugural ‘Women in Business in Sport’ award, which recognised her leadership in sport innovation nationally and internationally. She is a passionate educator and gave her first TEDx talk in April 2023 on Our Moonshot on Educating the Next Two Billion People. \ \ Fiona’s other interests include performing choral music; art appreciation; oil painting; jogging; walking her three Cavalier King Charles dogs; travelling; photography and reading. In 2019, she founded a chamber choir – MusiCórum Cork. She is also a founder member of the Fleischmann Choir of the Cork School of Music (1992). She has been performing on stage for 48 years (in musicals, choirs, as a backing singer, and as a soloist).