Frugal Innovation: The Systematic Design of Resource-intelligent Solutions

Frugal Innovation: The Systematic Design of Resource-Intelligent Solutions advocates for a systematic approach to developing impactful, resource-efficient solutions in low-resource and high-resource settings. It integrates frugal innovation principles with design thinking and lean impact strategies, bridging the gap between theory and practice. This book explores themes like resource-constrained design, iterative development, and stakeholder-centric innovation, aligning with global challenges like environmental sustainability and global inequality, and aligning with global agendas like the SDGs.

This book combines theoretical insights with real-world case studies to demonstrate how systematic processes—spanning needs assessment, stakeholder engagement, prototyping, and scaling—can address complex social challenges sustainably. It emphasizes achieving maximum impact with minimal resources, ensuring solutions are efficient, accessible, and relevant across diverse socio-economic contexts. With a blend of conceptual depth and practical tools, the book provides repeatable steps for designing cost-effective, scalable, and context-appropriate solutions. Key concepts like resource-intelligent design, lean experimentation, and stakeholder-centric innovation are illustrated through case studies, showing how abstract ideas are applied in real-world social and technological settings.

Ideal for designers, engineers, social innovators, and professionals in social enterprise, sustainable development, and humanitarian design, offering guidance on driving inclusive, scalable progress within real-world constraints. Edited by experts in fields like biomedical innovation, systems thinking, and co-created health technologies, it equips readers to design technically robust and socially responsive solutions for meaningful impact.

The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

Lisa-Dionne Morris is the Director of Internationalisation, within the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences at the University of Leeds, UK, and the founder of the AKTO Virtual Centre of Excellence for Frugal Innovation and Design. She is also a professor of Public and Industry Understanding of Capability-Driven Design at the University of Leeds, England, and a Strategic Design Executive Consultant of user-centred design, design engineering, and product design development. Professor Morris focuses her research and consultancy on Information Acquisition Behaviour, Interaction, and Information Systems for Organisational and Business Security—capacities to prevent, prepare for, detect, and respond to challenges. She uses capability-driven design to explore frugality, person-centered design, service, product, and system solutions that take account of users’, organisations, and stakeholders’ capabilities. Professor Morris focuses on the information needs of people in key populations (KPs) in community, business, government, and individual situations.

Sudesh Sivarasu is the DSI/NRF – SARCHi South African Research Chair in Biomedical Engineering Innovation at the University of Cape Town (UCT), where he serves as Director of the Biomedical Engineering Research Centre and head of UCT MedTech. Recognised as UCT’s prolific inventor, he holds over 65 patent applications across 21 patent families, with 26 patents granted in five countries, alongside three open-source innovations and three start-up companies originating from his work. He conceptualised the multi-award-winning FrugalBiodesign™ methodology and founded the Medical Devices Lab, as well as co-founding the Orthopaedic Biomechanics Lab, both of which have produced award-winning medical technologies. With over 50 peer-reviewed journal publications, 52 conference papers, a book, and 12 book chapters, his research focuses on developing health technologies for low-resource settings. Professor Sivarasu has received numerous accolades, including UCT’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Innovation, the DST Innovation Bridge Award, the NSTF-South32 TW Khambule Award for Emerging Researcher, and 16 MedTech awards across four continents. He is an elected member of the Global Young Academy (GYA) and the South African Young Academy of Science (SAYAS)

Curtis Busby-Earle is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Computing at the University of the West Indies, Jamaica, and serves as Associate Dean in the Faculty of Science and Technology, overseeing graduate studies and research. His research interests include cybersecurity, requirements engineering, and quantum computing, and he teaches courses in cryptography, quantum computing, systems programming, and security analysis. Dr Busby-Earle developed the Software Engineering major in 2014 and the Cybersecurity major in 2025 for his department. He holds a BSc in Computer Science with a minor in Mathematics (1994) from UWI St Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago, as well as a master’s degree in Computer-Based Management Information Systems (2001) and a PhD in Computer Science (2012) from UWI Mona, Jamaica. His professional certifications include Certified Ethical Hacker (2005), Creating Computer Security Incident Response Teams (2008), and Architecture, Algorithms and Protocols of a Quantum Computer and Quantum Internet (2020).

Trust Saidi is a Postdoctoral researcher in health innovation and design at Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway. He has a Ph.D in Science & Technology Studies and an MSc in Public Policy and Human Development. His scholarly pursuits are centered on the convergence of multidisciplinary knowledge domains and diverse perspectives to orchestrate the strategic design, development, and deployment of health technologies within various community contexts. Driven by a commitment to leveraging co-creation methodologies, Trust aspires to address the intricate and multifaceted challenges inherent in healthcare by fostering collaboration among stakeholders.