diff --git a/atlas-schemas b/atlas-schemas
index 33a9b2e..8054511 160000
--- a/atlas-schemas
+++ b/atlas-schemas
@@ -1 +1 @@
-Subproject commit 33a9b2e1d0ff05c22da81aa35cfb0dda7fe06b2c
+Subproject commit 80545112bf373ccacfe46a53787aa07a4ef0b971
diff --git a/bin/load_exp_design.sh b/bin/load_exp_design.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..48bf5cf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/bin/load_exp_design.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,46 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+
+set -e
+
+scriptDir=$(cd "$( dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}" )" && pwd )
+source $scriptDir/db_scxa_common.sh
+
+dbConnection=${dbConnection:-$1}
+condensed_sdrf_file=${CONDENSED_SDRF_FILE:-$2}
+sdrf_file=${SDRF_FILE:-$3}
+
+# Check that necessary environment variables are defined.
+[ -z ${dbConnection+x} ] && echo "Env var dbConnection for the database connection needs to be defined. This includes the database name." && exit 1
+[ -z ${CONDENSED_SDRF_FILE+x} ] && echo "Env var CONDENSED_SDRF_FILE for the experiment design data needs to be defined." && exit 1
+[ -z ${SDRF_FILE+x} ] && echo "Env var SDRF_FILE for column sequence of experiment design needs to be defined." && exit 1
+
+# Reason for creating this array is to search factor value column
+# In some sdrf files this column is mentioned as "Factor Value" and in some as "FactorValue"
+FactorArray=( FactorValue "Factor Value" )
+
+# for experiment design column table we need to have unique experiment accession, column name and sample type
+# as they are the primary key for the table and we don't want to insert duplicate rows
+cut -f 1,4,5 $condensed_sdrf_file | sort | uniq | while read exp_acc sample_type col_name;
+do
+  if [ $sample_type == 'characteristic' ]
+        then
+            search_column="Characteristics[${col_name}]"
+            column_order=$(awk -v val="$search_column" -F '\t' '{for (i=1; i<=NF; i++) if ($i==val) {print i} }' $sdrf_file)
+        else
+            for element in "${FactorArray[@]}"; do
+                search_column="$element[${col_name}]"
+                column_order=$(awk -v val="$search_column" -F '\t' '{for (i=1; i<=NF; i++) if ($i==val) {print i} }' $sdrf_file)
+                if [[ -n "${column_order}" ]]; then
+                    break
+                fi
+            done
+        fi
+        echo "INSERT INTO exp_design_column (experiment_accession, column_name, sample_type, column_order) VALUES ('$exp_acc', '$col_name', '$sample_type', '$column_order');" | psql -v ON_ERROR_STOP=1 $dbConnection
+done
+
+while IFS=$'\t' read exp_acc sample sample_type col_name annot_value annot_url
+do
+  echo "INSERT INTO exp_design (sample, annot_value, annot_ont_uri, exp_design_column_id) VALUES ('$sample', '$annot_value', '$annot_url', (SELECT id FROM exp_design_column WHERE experiment_accession='$exp_acc' AND column_name='$col_name' AND sample_type='$sample_type'));" | psql -v ON_ERROR_STOP=1 $dbConnection
+done < $condensed_sdrf_file
+
+echo "Experiment design data done loading for $condensed_sdrf_file"
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/tests/random-data-set.bats b/tests/random-data-set.bats
index 17da3db..f573918 100644
--- a/tests/random-data-set.bats
+++ b/tests/random-data-set.bats
@@ -377,6 +377,15 @@
   [ "$status" -eq 0 ]
 }
 
+@test "Exp_Design: Load exp_design data" {
+  export CONDENSED_SDRF_FILE=/tmp/fixtures/experiment_files/magetab/E-MTAB-2983/E-MTAB-2983.condensed-sdrf.tsv
+  export SDRF_FILE=/tmp/fixtures/experiment_files/magetab/E-MTAB-2983/E-MTAB-2983.sdrf.txt
+  run load_exp_design.sh
+
+  echo "output = ${output}"
+  [ "$status" -eq 0 ]
+}
+
 @test "Collections: Create X" {
   export COLL_ID=MYCOLLX
   export COLL_NAME="My collection X"