The Social Design Initiative in Asia (SDI-A: Social Design Initiative in Asia) focuses on design, as well as urban planning, landscape design and other design disciplines at the master's and doctoral levels. The program aims to develop social design innovators who are able to think through design to solve the difficult problems of modern society, and who have the insight and international mobility to do so. The program will provide students with a third-party perspective on a problem and compare its social characteristics with those of other societies to properly understand what is at stake. The project will also popularize a new design education system for solving socially problematic issues, and will expand this system worldwide.

The project is expected to have more than 300 students on exchange; each student exchange will last at least 3 months; the project will build a pool of socially innovative design talent capable of solving difficult problems in modern society; and the SDI online learning platform.