The essay presents the results of a 2 years survey within 7 European and Latin American countries (Italy, Portugal, Spain, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico), focusing on the scientific and professional initiatives accomplished by universities and research centres in the field of designdriven innovation. The survey shows a growing interest towards the methodological aspects of design by the observed actors and urges the formation of a “Latin network” aimed at experimenting proper design processes for Latin countries’ socio-cultural and productive systems. The basic idea is that design culture, considered as a process culture, has relevant advantages in the actual relationship between production and consumption: − Offering design a mediator’s role between the crucial knowledge for sustainable development: economy, art/creativity, technology and humanities; − Producing a “phantasmagoric” capacity (the possibility to visualize and share what is immaterial and upcoming); − Mediating between the productive and consumption systems’ interests.