Justin Magee is a Professor of Design and Research Director (since 2017) for Art & Design (UoA32) leading the REF2021 submission, his academic discipline is product design. He was the Interim Associate Dean for Research & Impact for the faculty of AHSS (2021-2022). He received the Ulster University Distinguished Business Fellowship 2007, Research Excellence award for KE in 2017 and the Research Excellence Award for Business partnerships of the year under 250 employees in 2020. He is Director for the AHRC Funded Green Transition Ecosystem: Future Island-Isalnd and PI for Ulster AHRC funded Impact Acceleration Account.

His research focuses user experience and immersion for physical and digital product applications, in Arts and Health. His work was returned in the RAE2001, RAE2008, REF2014 and REF2021 including leading an Impact Case Study.

Since 2001, he has had a sustained record of multi-disciplinary and multiagency research income securing £31,980,861 across 36 external research awards from AHRC, UKRI, DCAL, Innovate UK, WHSCT, NHSCT, HSC R&D/PHA, ATI, HEA-NSRP, and ConnectED (excluding matched funding of circa £5,700,000). He is the Principal Investigator for Ulster's first Impact Accelerator Account (AHRC, 2022-2025) and a Co-investigator on one of the nine national AHRC Creative Industries Clusters (Future Screens NI). 20 awards were as PI totalling £8,808,592 income (£10,340,352 @80FEC) with additional funding (not R-coded) related to research and impact totalling £49,407 from DCAL, Invest NI/ ERDF/DCC, INTERREG IIIA, HSCNI, HPSS. 

As a design consultant he has worked for LEGO Systems, Denmark, GE Plastics (Germany and UK) on contracts with Mercedes, Audi, Porsche etc., Smart Car and as a design consultant on over 80 commercial projects with SME’s in Ireland and the UK. He has generated >£271,518 through Innovation Ulster Ltd. He has been involved in nine Invention disclosures, 3 patents and is an IP stakeholder in 3 collaborative research projects with HSC Innovations.

His recent KTP activity with CDE Global and Axial3D received Innovate UK Certificates of Excellence, being scored outstanding (2017, 2020, 2025). The CDE KTP was a case study for the NCUB State of the Art report (2018) and a finalist at the THELMAs for KE initiative of the year (2018). The Axial3D KTP reached the finals of the Innovate UK Business Transformation and Impact Award (2022).

He has also served as:

• Course and Subject Director (2009-2016) at UG and PG level
• Placement coordinator (2000-2006, 2010-2015)
• Director for Academic Enterprise for the Faculty of Arts (2006-2011)
• Acting Director of the Research Institute (2005)

He is a member of the Institute of Designers (IDI, 2006), Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA, 2020), All-Party Design & Innovation (2022) and The Council for Higher Education in Art & Design (CHEAD, 2017). In 2020 he was appointed as CHEAD Research Alliance Strategy Group member. He held an external appointment on the HSC NI Office for Research Ethics Committees (2017-2019). He has peer-reviewed several Journals across design, medical engineering, creative industries and entrepreneurship including the Design Journal and Design for Health. He is a member of the AHRC Peer review panel for the DEP programme (2022) and a member of CHEAD Research Alliance Strategy Group (since 2020).