IIT Hyderabad launches international certificate programme in Product–Service Systems design

The programme has been designed in line with the larger IIT Hyderabad plan to expand international design education and industry-linked innovation, according to an official statement. The partnership has been developed with support from the Project Minerva – The Italian Education and Training Hub by IICCI.

IITH announced its new International Certificate Programme in Integrated Product–Service System (IPSS) Design, crafted by its Department of Design, DoD, in collaboration with POLI.design, Milan. In India, the programme will be supported by the Indo-Italian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, IICCI. This shall improve cross-border learning while facilitating advanced design frameworks to Indian learners, states an official release.

The IPSS Design Certificate is an online, 54-hour training program beginning on 15 January 2026. The said program includes 30 hours of live online modules along with 24 hours of hands-on workshop sessions. The sessions will be jointly conducted by the faculty members from POLI.design and IIT Hyderabad’s Department of Design.

The program structure would be in rotation between Italian and Indian experts. This would include exposure to worldwide design practices, collaboration, and project work. It also aims to develop some competencies in the participant, which are product-service system thinking, sustainable design methods, strategic innovation, enablement to real business-design challenges.

It has been developed under an official statement as part of IIT Hyderabad's bigger plan to scale up global design education and build up industry-linked innovation. The collaboration has been shaped with support from IICCI's Project Minerva – The Italian Education and Training Hub.

Prof BS Murty, Director of IIT Hyderabad, said the collaboration with POLI.design and IICCI would help strengthen knowledge exchange between India and Italy. He added that it is expected to build skilled human resources in tune with fast-emerging product and service design landscape in India.

Prof Cabirio Cautela, the former CEO and faculty member of the project at POLI.design, said the institution wanted, through this program, to contribute and support the need for upskilling and reskilling in India, sharing strategic design expertise.

Mr. Claudio Maffioletti, CEO and Secretary General of IICCI said, "Such collaborations contribute to forming stronger Indo-Italian business linkages besides supporting the transfer of design capabilities increasingly required by the industries."

Role of IICCI and international industry link This collaboration has been facilitated by Indo-Italian Chamber of Commerce and Industry under its Minerva Eduhub initiative. The Chamber sees such partnerships as a way of deepening the bilateral economic engagement and strengthening design-driven enterprise capabilities, the IIT Hyderabad statement said. POLI.design is a part of the Politecnico di Milano Design System and was ranked first in Italy, first in the European Union and sixth globally in the category of Arts and Design in QS Rankings 2025, an official statement said. The institution, founded in the year 1999, has been a provider of postgraduate education and creates cross-industry programs by adopting the project-based learning and research-led learning approach. Thus, the tri-partite collaboration places the programme in a strategic position to support professional readiness across sectors dependent on integrated product and service offerings. It further resonates with the wider initiatives of global network development in design, innovation, and industry-oriented education.