The state of nature-inspired innovation in the UK Authors Richard James MacCowan richard@biomimicryinnovationlab.com Yuning Chen yuning@biomimicryinnovationlab.com Sriram Nadathur sriram@nadathur.com
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Executive summary Acknowledgements Disclaimer About Biomimicry Nadathur Group
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Introduction
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Facing global challenges such as climate change and resource shortages, how can the rising interest in natureinspired innovation provide us with innovative solutions in harmony with our planet earth? This chapter introduces readers to the field of nature-inspired innovation, including its visions, definition, methodologies and case studies.
The research covers the frontier knowledge in nature-inspired innovation and the research network’s depth and width in this highly interdisciplinary space. It concludes with insights from our research and surveys about the most common challenges and opportunities in turning academic knowledge into real-world impact.
Industry introduces emerging companies that bring nature-inspired innovation into real-world products and services. It also looks at the strategies along the journey, such as the critical partnership with academia, aligning with governmental innovation strategies.
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Funding covers the landscape of current funding interest in the fields relevant to nature-inspired innovation. It also discusses funding opportunities and future strategies for interdisciplinary projects at different stages.
The final chapter concludes with key action points from different perspectives to enable a more effective innovation ecosystem that powers translational nature-inspired research and development processes.
Case studies Glossary References About dogeatcog
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Executive summary Nature-inspired innovation, the practice of drawing on solutions found in nature for human innovation, hints at approaches to solving problems in a cyclic and regenerative manner. Precision growth, homeostasis systems, self-organising materials, genetic storage, fluid dynamics, over 4 billion years of evolution; nature has already crafted a vast database of how life can prosper within the balance of ecosystems.
The sooner people stop thinking about biology and start thinking about the nature of the problem, the sooner people will understand nature-inspired innovation. It’s a matter of thinking more at the system’s level. Professor Julian Vincent
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Definition - Nature-inspired innovation is about the solution space. Biomimicry, biomimetic(s), bioinspired, bio-inspired, bioinspiration, biologically inspired, biological inspiration, bionic(s), nature-inspired, nature inspired and ecomimicry; our research has made it clear that these words/ phrases are all fundamentally the same. They look at the natural world as a starting point and the end result - a better solution. Processes and methods evolve over time, but as long as you understand the underlying mechanisms of the natural world, you are on the right track.
Executive Summary
In the face of global challenges, innovation is no longer defined solely by its economic and technological successes, but more importantly, its social and environmental performance. Coupled with the growing market need for responsible, ethical and sustainable consumer products and ambitious environmental policies, businesses have been driven to develop solutions to improve social and planetary health.
Executive summary
Photo credit: Prince Patel @Unsplashed 4
Throughout the report, we propose a solution-oriented approach when looking into nature and provide insights into potential interventions based on our analysis of opportunities and challenges from the perspective of different stakeholders. In addition, a rich repository of case studies will be listed to demonstrate visions and methodologies of nature-inspired technologies and current academic, industrial and funding landscapes to introduce our readers to the field.
As a result, over the past ten years, we have seen a vast increase in the
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Based on a year-long research process with extensive interviews, surveys, desktop research and data analysis, we identified a widespread network of over 1500 correlated researchers active in the field, laying a solid foundation in understanding the holistic landscape and opportunities in nature-inspired innovation across the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland. For example, we have observed recurring challenges such as a lack of resources, funding and skill gaps, and differences in the visions and workflows in the academic and commercial systems. These can be significantly improved by a more
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substantial network that enables more synergic, active dialogues, mutual understanding and partnership among different disciplines and stakeholders. Noticing an absence of a common language and an effective network in the field, this report aims to facilitate cross-pollination across borders by providing a multi-perspective roadmap and an action guide in nature-inspired innovation from initial ideas to reality. Further, we will share a strategic analysis of potential interventions that enable a more empowering and collaborative innovation ecosystem within nature-inspired innovation.
Executive Summary
number of patents, publications and press regarding nature-inspired discoveries.
However, one cannot draw a direct correlation between nature-inspired innovations and sustainability. Every mechanism works within its unique scale and context. Therefore, we advocate a rigorous and cautious attitude towards the underlying premises of any specific mechanisms and the systemic complication when applying them to another context. We are using more advanced tools to learn from an imitate nature. At the same time, the field of nature-inspired innovation has grown exponentially.
Acknowledgements The authors also wish to thank dogeatcog for producing this report, Quilt AI, for their help with data analysis and the team from Biomimicry Innovation Lab, past and present. This report has been produced by Biomimicry Innovation Lab Limited in collaboration with Nadathur Group. The authors take full responsibility for the contents and conclusions. The participation of the industry experts and academics who were consulted and acknowledged here does not necessarily imply endorsement of the report’s contents or conclusions.
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To quote this report, please use the following reference: Biomimicry Innovation Lab and Nadathur Group (2021), The State of Nature-inspired Innovation in the UK Use of the report’s figures, tables or diagrams, must fully credit the respective copyright owner where indicated. Reproduction must be in its original form with no adaptations or derivatives. For the use of any images in the report, please contact the respective copyright holders directly for permission. For more information - work@ biomimicryinnovationlab.com
acknowledgements
The authors would also like to thank the researchers, academics and industry experts who gave their time to complete the surveys, be interviewed or contribute their expertise to this report.
Biomimicry Innovation Lab We work with companies at the early stage of project development through initial consultation, in-depth research and analytics. We achieve this via defining the problem, identifying the competing desires and developing a series of prototypes and experiments
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to clarify how, together, we can reach a successful outcome. Our services help you develop new business models, find biological strategies, identify existing solutions for streamlined technology transfer, access to investors and other sources of capital.
ABOUT
Biomimicry Innovation Lab is a design agency focusing on manufacturing, agriculture and urban innovation. With a team of innovators and changemakers worldwide, we bring expertise from the design, engineering, science and financial sectors.
Meet the team Close
Yuning Chen
Richard James MacCowan is the Founder and Biofuturist of Biomimicry Innovation Lab. Richard is an award-winning multi-disciplinary designer and works worldwide on urbanism, manufacturing, and agricultural projects. In addition, he has a background in international real estate investment and development and sustainable design, combining this with behavioural science and bio-inspired design. Richard is also the founder of the non-profit Biomimicry UK and an equine technology startup, Smart Stable Limited. He combines this with extensive research development with international collaborators via the Design Society, ISO Standards in Biomimetics, Royal Society of the Arts, and the Bessemer Society.
Yuning Chen is a design researcher with a background in environmental science. Yuning recently graduated from Innovation Design Engineering at Royal College of Art and Imperial College London. Her research interest mainly lies in the intersection of biology, informatics and design. Yuning has exhibited her work at the Dutch Design Week, Milan Design Week, London Design Biennale, and STARTS Festival. yuning@biomimicryinnovationlab.com
richard@biomimicryinnovationlab.com
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ABOUT
Richard James MacCowan
Nadathur Group We also have significant involvement in impact investments and philanthropic efforts across geographies. We engage our time, effort and resources on causes close to our hearts and where we can help make a difference. We support nature conservation, scientific research, education, care for differently-abled children, and the arts. The Family Office also manages a portfolio of public equity, fixed income, private equity, real estate and alternative asset classes.
Sriram Nadathur Sriram Nadathur is an entrepreneur, an angel investor, a philanthropist, and co-head of the Nadathur Group. He is responsible for the Group’s investments in Life Sciences, Health, Cleantech, Nature-inspired innovation, and Circular economy/sustainability. He is a biomimic, an engineer, and a business person based on educational degrees. Most importantly, he is a dreamer and a catalyst in helping make the world a better place by merging the heart (people, nature, and planet) and the mind (deep tech, innovation and start-ups). sriram@nadathur.com
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ABOUT
Nadathur Group is a Family Office (FO) in India, Singapore and the UK. The Group focuses on building new businesses and supporting entrepreneurship (angel & venture investments), especially in long gestation, high risk, innovation-based ventures. We prefer companies with significant market potential/ impact. Life sciences, Healthtech, Foodtech, Traveltech, Cleantech, Nature-inspired innovation, and Circular economy/sustainability are our sectors of interest.
Introduction
Photo credit: Marita Kavelashvili @Unsplashed 9
Reaching key development milestones such as Technology Readiness Levels1 (TRL’s) by itself does not necessarily lead to commercial relevance or success. However, bringing the market into the lab is critical to steer research and development towards real-world solutions. In addition, we believe that early-stage engagement of researchers and industry stakeholders can facilitate a better translation process from discoveries to impact at many levels. Nevertheless, we lack an effective
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network and a mature innovation ecosystem to enable these partnerships and fully unfold the potential of the vast knowledge in nature-inspired research within the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland. Our aim with this report is to identify and analyse the challenges faced by stakeholders within nature-inspired innovation and suggest potential opportunities for intervention.
INTRODUCTION
Translation of research to real-world impact is not always straightforward. It is even more challenging in the cases of emerging markets and interdisciplinary projects. However, facing complex challenges globally, we need to harness the expertise and values from different fields to solve problems from wide angles.
Context The 2021 Nobel Prize winners in Physics2 identified the direct correlation between human activities and climate change, which unprecedentedly consolidated our responsibilities to restore and protect our planet. Facing global climate challenges, aligning technological innovation with sustainable development has never been more urgent and relevant. But, in an age of transition, how might we find solutions that lead us to a symbiotic future?
As innovators we look around for fresh ideas, and with advances in technology we are able to understand the natural world like never before. Dr Rupert Soar, Nottingham Trent University
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As a species that thrives through pursuing perpetual growth, we are constantly at odds with the finite natural resources on Earth. As a result, we’ve created wasteful and linear manufacturing loops to extract natural resources and optimise their efficiency through industrialisation and automation. As a result, the Earth Overshoot Day3 for the regenerative capacity of our planet’s resources has been getting earlier by nearly a third since the 18th century. We are on a critical timeline to resolve these challenges.
INTRODUCTION
We are on a collective shift for the need to protect our planet. Over the past century, we have been developing technologies that support the livelihoods of an exponentially growing population while externalising the cost of nature.
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The last ten years have witnessed a growth in patents and publications in nature-inspired innovation worldwide, with China and the USA4 having the most extensive patent library. In addition, these two nations heavily invest in commercialising academic research, with the foundations set for this in the mid-20th century.
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The growing trend in biotechnology using biological processes, organisms, cells or cellular components has attracted an increasing number of companies to look into natural systems to search for circular, resource-efficient solutions across various industries. According to the OECD5, the increase in patents plays a pivotal role in developing technological transactions, leading to economic output. Similar trends can also be found in nature-inspired innovation.
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Since 2010 there has been...
171% 161% 2000% Appendices
increase in patents increase in publications increase in news articles
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Sources: Google Patents, Google Scholar, Google News
Innovation trends
Nature-inspired innovation is an interdisciplinary collaboration of biology and technology that solves practical problems by transforming the abstracted models of biological systems into solutions. Living organisms have evolved well-adapted structures and materials over a geologic timescale through natural selection. Looking to nature has given rise to multiple new technologies focusing on biomechanics, functional morphology, biological processes, anatomy, biochemistry and systems biology, from nano to macroscales.
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With advances in biocomputation, biomechanics and synthetic biology, our abilities to extrapolate natural phenomenons have levelled up exponentially - this fuels a flourishing landscape in academic and commercial fields. Research by Professor Julian Vincent6 (and others) highlighted a relatively low similarity between the way nature and technology solve problems, which is only 12%. Human technology manipulates energy usage, synthesises a wide range of materials, designs static and precise structures, and works in primarily linear and wasteful processes. On the other hand,
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nature resolves challenges mainly using information and structures within a balanced ecosystem. This leads to a great space for inspiration with many natural strategies and forms shaped by evolution. With our greater understanding of the natural world, we wish to increase the 12% figure. We’ve observed a variety of methods, practices and disciplines active in related spaces. By focusing on the commonalities to create innovation, we aim to bring equilibrium to our ecosystem. We aim to bring this together in one innovation space, natureinspired innovation.
INTRODUCTION
Nature-inspired innovation
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In the earliest recorded writings, you can find references to the wonders of nature’s engineering and the parallel wish to import ideas and mechanisms into modern technology. The earliest success was flight, foretold by the sketches of da Vinci and the study of polymeric fibres, such as wool and silk, that inspired the creation of nylon.
Nature leverages nanotech, uses renewable energy, does green chemistry, depends on radical resource efficiency, does all of this across varied ecological conditions, and, at the highest systems level, the Earth itself. Biological materials perform various functions with only a small range of biopolymers such as proteins, polysaccharides, and
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nucleic acid. At the same time, synthetic chemistry produces over 300 polymers and inorganic compounds to perform similar functionalities. What if we could replicate such a wide range of properties with less polymers? Nature represents around four billion years7 of inspiration and R&D, resulting in the evolution of millions of species, including us
humans. It also means a highly resilient system, having survived and thrived over billions of years despite rapid and, on multiple occasions, catastrophic changes. Thus, learning from and emulating nature offers a reliable, tested, and broader canvas for innovation that can help address global challenges.
INTRODUCTION
Why nature-inspired innovation?
Sharklet
Inspired by the antibacterial properties of nurse sharks’ skin, Sharklet Technologies creates the world’s first technology to inhibit bacterial growth through pattern alone. The Sharklet surface is composed of millions of microscopic features arranged in a distinct diamond pattern. The structure of the pattern inhibits bacteria from attaching, colonising and forming biofilms. In addition, their technology contains no toxic additives or chemicals and uses no antibiotics or antimicrobials.
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In 2002, Dr Brennan, a materials science and engineering professor at the University of Florida, visited the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor in Oahu with universities from the United Kingdom. As a result, the U.S. Office of Naval Research solicited the team to find new antifouling strategies to reduce the use of toxic antifouling paints and trim costs associated with dry docking their fleet and drag the increasing growth of biofouling on the hulls. Sharklet draws inspiration from the shape and pattern of the dermal denticles of sharkskin.
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Sharks are resistant to fouling organisms in the water, including algae and barnacles. As a result, the primary Sharklet micropattern is very small – about three microns tall and two microns wide. As of 2017, Sharklet Technologies has raised $5.1 million via grants and Series A and B funding and offered products in the medical industry, adhesive-backed film, and materials for multiple uses.
Methodologies There are numerous developments that extrapolate insights from the natural world and apply them to technological and environmental solutions. However, whilst innovation models come and go, to achieve success it is critical to develop a solid and coherent understanding of the fundamental biological principles and their relation to the wider system.
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INTRODUCTION
In the research-led approach, the starting point is a new result from basic biological research promising for natureinspired innovation and, for example, developing a material after analysing a biological system’s mechanical, physical, and chemical properties. Understanding these principles and abstracting them from the biological models can be transferred to the technical implementation of new or improved products. Jacobs (2014)8, during their study of successful nature-inspired innovations, identified that the majority of these are research-oriented solutions.
In the industry-led approach, new ideas are sought for already existing products/services that have been successfully established on the market. Thus, the cooperation focuses on the improvement or further development of an existing product. In this instance, the research identifies relevant biological analogies and extract applicable processes, structures or systems. The technical implementation of these principles is then applied to improve upon, or solve technical or environmental challenges.
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Eden Project Industry-led case study
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The Eden Project, the most significant greenhouse globally, was designed with various inspirations drawn from nature. By looking into the structure of soap bubbles, the architects created a way to construct buildings without being restricted by the ground levels evenness, which led to the iconic main form - the dome structures.
Inspiration came from various natural structures, including soap bubbles, carbon molecules, radiolaria and dragonfly wings. The result is one of the lightest structures ever created and a largely self-heating building using passive solar design principles. In addition, they selected an extremely lightweight material, ETEE, instead of the traditional use of glasses and plastic in modern buildings. ETFE offered multiple benefits resulting in a virtuous circle
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of efficiency: the ETFE pillows could be made much more extensive than glass and were 1% of the weight (a factor 100 saving in embodied energy). This substantially reduced the amount of steel required and allowed more sunlight into the building. The result was a radical reinterpretation of the greenhouse - an extremely lightweight selfheating enclosure for most of the year. The weight of the
superstructure for the Humid Tropics Biome is less than the weight of the air that it contains. The scheme has won numerous awards and contributed £0.5 billion to the local economy during its first three years of opening.
Fabric Nano Research-led case study
The team at Fabric Nano, learning from how organisms create biochemicals, have created a highly efficient cell-free biochemical flow reactor. By producing enzymes that can directly bind to DNA and harnessing the precision of DNA-scaffold manufacturing, they aim to replace the heavily polluting fermented and petrochemistry industry with the next generation of cell-free biofabrication.
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Fabric Nano was founded in 2018 by a group of researchers from Oxford University and the London Business School through the Entrepreneur First program.
Their FabricFlow reactor technology has reduced the cost of manufacturing by introducing many technical innovations that vastly improve the efficiency of the cell-free biomanufacturing process.
By creating a novel DNA-based flow reactor, they can produce biochemicals through engineering enzymes that bind directly to DNA. The use of DNA as a scaffold allows high spatial precision, while the power of enzymes to attach anywhere along a string of DNA provides deep flexibility.
Moreover, the binding between DNA and the enzyme can happen anywhere along the string, enabling a high level of flexibility in the production process. With the introduction of various new technologies, they successfully improved the efficiency in biomanufacturing with lower costs. To date, they have raised $15.5 million.
Research research
The highly interdisciplinary characteristic of nature-inspired innovation enables a widespread network among a broad range of fields. For example, if you look at how living organisms capture, store and utilise carbon in a cyclic manner within their local environments, we can derive a series of materials1, energy2 and waste management3 solutions with significantly reduced or even offsetted carbon footprints.
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Research overview The steps we took to understand the state of nature-inspired innovation was achieved using the following research methodology:
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Our team carried out an intensive scan of every higher education institution in the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland focusing on 12 keywords and phrases. As a result of this extensive search, we identified over 1500 researchers (masters-level and above) across the country. In addition, we found 100+ research labs, either entirely focused on nature-inspired innovation or included within their methods of innovation development. Our focus is on the core subjects, research focus areas, and funding sources available from publicly available information.
We developed an extensive survey of researchers and industry professionals to understand the challenges and opportunities within innovation development, investment requirements, and the difficulties of academicindustry collaborations. We sent the survey to all of the identified researchers and the respective technology transfer offices. We received 233 responses to our survey request.
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people interviewed
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To fully understand the challenges and opportunities of academic-industry collaboration, we subsequently interviewed 140 people over six months. The information is anonymised for cooperation with our analytics partners, Quilt AI, to understand the semantics compared to the anonymised survey results using natural language processing (NLP).
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112,000 data points
Working in conjunction with Quilt.ai using anonymised information, we identified a number of insights that are highlighted in the subject chapters of this report. These include terminology, regional variations, desire to commercialise, barriers to innovation and access to investment opportunities amongst others.
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We condensed nature-inspired innovation’s various terminologies based on our desktop research of higher education institutions in the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland. Our research identified a range of keywords and phrases from biomimicry, biomimetic(s), bioinspired, bio-inspired, bioinspiration, biologically inspired, biological inspiration, bionic(s), natureinspired, nature inspired and ecomimicry. Similar terms were grouped: Bioinspired (bioinspired, bio-inspired, biologically inspired, biological inspiration): and, Nature-inspired (nature-inspired, nature inspired). In 2020, among the 9767 publications, bio-inspired, biomimetics and bionic were the most common phrases based on Semantic Scholar4.
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Nature-inspired and biomimicry followed as the minor phrases. Our survey asked the respondents to identify which keywords and phrases we used during our desktop research mostly aligned with their practice. Very few chose only one keyword or phrase, with many selecting more than two. Bio-inspired (50.2%) was the most common, followed by Nature-inspired (21.1%). We concluded that focusing on the commonalities among these definitions is more effective than their differences, especially in a solution-driven context.
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Terminology variation
Biomimetic
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In our survey we asked the respondents to identify which of the words and phrases we used during our desktop research. Very few chose only one word or phrase with many selecting more than two. Bio-inspired (50.2%) was the most common followed by Natureinspired (21.1%). It is clear that the keyword/phrase is not important in academia, it is about scientific discoveries and solving problems.
Biomimicry
3.5% research
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Wales
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We’ve mapped out the geographical distribution of various research institutes active in the field of nature-inspired innovations, among which London and south east England have the highest number of related institutions.
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Geographical overview
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Regional variation London
19.6% Oxford
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Despite the strong presence of the Russell Group universities, it is apparent that there is a growing research activity within nature-inspired innovation in the non-mainstream research groups.
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The search for researchers uncovered 100+ research labs carrying out some form of nature-inspired innovation. The diagram showcase the regions and cities with the most active research communities.
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15.3%
N8 Research Partnership* The N8 Research Partnership is a collaboration of the eight most research-intensive universities in the North of England: Durham, Lancaster, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Sheffield and York. The research identified 292 researchers and academics.
33.6%
9.2% 6.8%
of research is practised away from traditional research-intensive institutions.
Scottish Research Partnership in Engineering* Currently working to future-proof Scotland’s position as a world-class centre of research excellence and competitive driving force in engineering. The research identified 185 researchers and academics.
2.0%
Million Plus - The Association for Modern Universities in the UK Million Plus9 representing 23 research universities. The research identified 49 researchers and academics.
0.3%
Guild HE The research identified 5 within GuildHE10 researchers.
* Disclaimer: Many universities sit within several research partnerships with, for example, Russell Group5 universities found within the N8 Research Partnership6 and Scottish Research Partnership8.
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The University Alliance University Alliance7 is the voice of twelve professional and technical universities working at the heart of their communities. The research identified 71 researchers and academics.
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Innovation across disciplines
Mapping fields of research
37.8% Engineering 15.2% Medicine 11.9% Computer Science 11.7% Chemistry
12.2% Others Other includes 4.6% Physics 2.1% Environment 1.9% Architecture 1.8% Social Science 1.8% Design
Following our research into researchers across the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland, we identified the most widely researched fields related to nature-inspired innovation. We aim to present the width and depth of its knowledge network by showing the connections between areas and their broad sub-topics.
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11.1% Biology
Engineering Top five subtopics in engineering research
Mechanical Engineering
Materials Science
Biomedical Engineering
Bioengineering
Robotics
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Professor Marc Desmulliez11
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8.8% 8.2%
14.9% 13.8% 11.6%
I believe that teaching and researching nature-inspired engineering will be of increasing importance in a century when the world is facing profound existential problems. As we transition from our production-oriented thinking process, we owe it ourselves to reconnect to Nature to find in her some of our much-needed solutions.
Medicine Top five subtopics in Medicine
Neurology
Others
Neuroscience
Pharmacology
11.8% 14.5%
Biomedical Engineering
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A bit like the wasp, the catheter in Eden 2020 comprises multiple segments that can move with respect to one another. We took that design and reinvented it for use in neurosurgery. This extraordinarylaying channel of an ovipositing wasp is composed of several parts that could gently travel through the bark of a tree. I thought, wow, what a deep-seated concept. Could I apply it to minimally invasive neurosurgery? Professor Ferdinando Rodriguez y Baena12
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8.3% 10.3% 10.3%
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Computer science 25% AI & ML
Natural systems provide unique examples of computation in a form very different from contemporary computer architectures. Biology also demonstrates capabilities such as adaptation, self-repair and self-organisation that are becoming increasingly desirable for our technology. Just think what digital biology could do for us. Perhaps it could evolve new designs for us, think up ways to detect fraud using digital neurons, or solve scheduling problems with ants. Perhaps it could detect hackers with immune systems or create music from the patterns of growth of digital seashells. Perhaps it would allow our computers to become creative and inventive.
14.8% Robotics 9.0% Data Science
7.4% Other 6.3% Simulation 5.7% Computation Biology 3.9% Neuroscience 2.3% HCI 1.7% Cyber Security 1.7% Computer Vision 1.1% Complex Systems 1.1% Concurrent Computing
Professor Peter Bentley13
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19.9% Nature-inspired computation
Opteran Technologies Opteran Technologies have achieved a paradigm shift in machine intelligence that provides a path to genuine general purpose autonomy. Co-founder and Chief Science Officer Professor James Marshall chose to map insects’ neurons, specifically the honeybee, which exhibits sophisticated navigational skills using a brain the size of a pinhead with only a million neurons.
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Following eight years of research led by Professor James Marshall and Dr Alex Cope from the University of Sheffield’s Department of Computer Science, Opteran is pioneering lightweight, low-cost silicon brains to enable robots and autonomous vehicles to sense, see, navigate and make decisions.
will significantly expand the potential addressable market for autonomy in machines and robotics.
Inspired by the brains of social insects, the company believes its approach to autonomy, called ‘Natural Intelligence’,
Opteran Technologies’ autonomous solutions can mimic tasks such as seeing, sensing objects, obstacle
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Although insects have smaller brains than humans, they can make sophisticated decisionmaking and navigation using optic flow to perceive depth and distance.
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avoidance, navigation and decision making. In a recent trial, Opteran’s AI was able to control a sub-250g drone, with complete onboard autonomy, using fewer than 10,000 pixels from a single lowresolution panoramic camera. Following a £6m EPSRC grant to initiate the initial research, the company has raised £1.91m through seed funding as of November 2020.
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Chemistry n ce
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mistr e h
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Scalability, efficiency and resilience are essential to nature, as they are to engineering processes. They are achieved through underpinning fundamental mechanisms, which are grouped as recurring themes in a nature-inspired solutions approach: hierarchical transport networks, force balancing, dynamic self-organisation, and ecosystem properties. To leverage these universal mechanisms and incorporate them effectively into engineering design, adaptations may be needed to accommodate the different contexts of nature and engineering applications.
tr y
4.5%
Professor Marc-Olivier Coppens14
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Carbonmetrics Carbometrics, the Bristol-based start-up, is developing a supramolecular Glucose Binding Molecule platform using Biomimetic glucose binding molecules. They aim to work towards reliable, accurate and long-lasting glucose sensors. Its mission is to help people with diabetes to live more regular and extended lives. Their new glucose sensor chemicals will enable Carbometrics to be a market leader in the Continuous Glucose Monitors (CGM) sector. The team discovered a glucose binding molecule that can sense the presence of glucose in the bloodstream. The molecule is a cage-like structure that only a glucose molecule fits within. Therefore, it can be used as a receptor or sensor for blood glucose. Their core competency is designing and synthesising highly selective and robust tiny molecule receptors. Our principal
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technology is the world’s most selective Glucose Binding Molecule (GBM), supported by over 20 years of research by Professor Anthony Davis’ group at the University of Bristol. Carbometrics was founded after the founders sold their first company Ziylo to Novo Nordisk. With Carbometrics’ support, Novo Nordisk uses the GBM technology to develop a cutting-edge insulin – Glucose Sensitive Insulin (GSI). As of March 2021, they have raised $3.77 million through Series 2 funding.
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Biology Top five subtopics in biology
Biological structures are amazingly robust and resilient, despite the great restrictions in materials and design. How do biological structures respond to the environment, and why? How do the structural functions influence the construction and evolution of biological architecture?
Biophysics
Bioelectronics
Zoology
Biochemistry
Dr Naomi Nagayama15
Others
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research
8.7% 7.4%
12.1% 11.4% 10.7%
Phycosera
Phycosera is a UK-based biotechnology start-up that produces high-value compounds by harnessing microalgae’s potential for the pharmaceutical, cosmetics and biocatalysis industry. The tremendous potential values of microalgae come from their robustness under various environmental conditions, fast growth rate and accumulation of biomass, and its immense diversity in metabolic properties. They aim to use microalgae as green cell factories for high-value compounds to enable alternative, green production methods with a high-cost return and minimal environmental impact. Phycosera is actively pursuing research & development of novel molecular tools and microalgae strains with properties beyond their current potential, which are tailored for fast growth, safety and high yields of high-value products.
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They aim to disrupt current industrial biotechnology production methods and apply microalgae as a robust industrial biotechnology platform for delivering biopharmaceutics, cosmetics and enzyme preparations. Phycosera, along with other academic and commercial entities, considers transgenic microalgae having significant potential as green production platforms for high-value
compounds and recombinant proteins. This is under the premise that adequately efficient methods for transgenesis and protein expression can be developed in fast-growing, high biomass and protein yielding microalgal strains under contained, controlled conditions. They are working with the University of York via the Bioscience Technology Facility and Phyconet.
Physics 41.2%
3.5%
Others Nanophysics
7.1%
Materials Science
29.4%
Nature is an excellent source of inspiration when it comes to colours. Different organisms developed elegant nanostructures capable of the most variegate optical appearances, from iridescent metallic colours to matt ones, without the use of any pigments. Inspired by such natural architectures we use cellulose to produce more sustainable pigments with the same variegate optical response. Professor Sivia Vignoli16
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8.2%
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Biophysics
Condensed Matter Physics
Mathematics Mathematical Ecology
Mechanical Engineering
16.7%
Mathematical Biology
44.4% 39
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5.6%
Applied Mathematics
Computational Mathematics
16.7%
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5.6%
5.6% Appendices
A detailed look at the biological world generates endless new problems in fluid mechanics - new in the sense that they occur in a basic setup or regime very different from problems in the physical world. A lot of my research activity is centred on developing quantitative models for novel questions in biological fluid mechanics using a combination of analytical derivations, asymptotic analysis, and numerical computations. Professor Eric Lauga17
research
5.6%
Theoretical Physics
Design
Urban Planning
23.0%
Materials Science
7.7%
Fashion and Textiles
19.2% Industrial Design
11.5%
Dr John McCardle18
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Computational Design
11.5%
research
Recent interest in biomimicry has been expedited by the enormity of existing knowledge in the biosciences and the apparent possibilities to be creatively inspired by nature. Biomimetics necessitates knowledge across the diverse sub-disciplines of Life Sciences and Design in order to seek bio-inspired solutions and epitomises the interdisciplinary challenges that are faced by the modern design practitioners. For Designers to engage with biomimetics, collaboration with biologists and scientist across multiple disciplines is currently viewed as crucial.
Top five subtopics in Design
Download figures and diagrams from the Biomimicry Innovation website
Architecture
25.0% 41
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18.8%
Industry
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Biomimetic Architecture
15.6%
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12.5%
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Smart Cities
9.4%
Dr Tim Ireland19
research
Sustainable Architecture
Materials Science
The similarities between the structures built by social insects and by humans have led to a convergence of interests between biologists and architects. This new de facto interdisciplinary community of scholars needs a common terminology and theoretical framework in which to ground its work.
Environment Top five subtopics in Environment research
Environmental Management
Ecology
Sustainable Development
Energy Systems
Professor Paul Graham20
Other
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research
11.4% 8.6%
14.3% 11.4% 11.4%
Understanding the computational basis of spatial cognition requires observations of natural behaviour and the underlying neural circuits, which are difficult to do simultaneously: however, recent studies show how we might achieve this, combining rich virtual reality set-ups and the use of optogenetics in freely moving animals.
Social Science 25.0%
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Social insects like honeybees and army ants are cool, there is no denying it. But how, and why, do they exist at all? Sociality represents a major transition in evolution: understanding the mechanisms and function of social behaviour provides important insights into one of the most fascinating phenomena in the natural world. The Sumner Lab21
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9.4% Sustainable Development
Industry
9.4% Philosophy
Research
15.6% Public Management
Introduction
Neuroscience
Psychology
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18.8%
Materials science 65.8%
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Biomaterials
Nanomaterials
Smart Materials
Composite Materials
Optics
16.7%
12.2%
8.5%
6.9%
6.9%
Materials Chemistry
Bioelectronics
Catalysis
Bio-inspired Materials
Surface Engineering
6.5%
5.3%
4.1%
2.8%
2.8%
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Professor Andrew Alderson22
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The top ten subtopics of Materials Science made up
I’m a firm believer that nature has evolved materials over the years to optimise function for the application. So we’re trying to understand how nature makes materials auxetic, why it’s done that, and where we can then apply that in new materials and potential applications.
Challenges Investment opportunities
Barriers to commercialisation
The majority of respondents have been approached by potential investors or business partners at relatively early stages, from TRL 3 (23%), 4 (27%) to 5 (15%).
All interviewees admit that taking their research to a commercial level is a challenging and complex undertaking. Moreover, the complexity of the process, high administration costs and the intellectual property (IP) negotiations with their respective universities can create much friction in creating spinouts.
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Accessibility to funding, both governmental and private, is another big challenge: - Funding bodies tend to be risk averse, especially in the earlier stages of TRL. - Government and university funding is limited and generally short-term; most of the time, they cannot support progress across TRL levels. - University spin-outs often are not eligible for start-up/UKRI grants.
of survey participants expressed a strong desire to commercialise their research. About half of them have been approached by potential investors for commercialisation.
research
Despite being a vibrant academic area, researchers within the nature-inspired innovation space face multiple challenges in scaling up their research and applying them to create commercially viable products and services.
On a scale of 1 to 45, how would you rank your desire to commercialise your research (or innovation)? 1/5 rating 2/5 rating 3/5 rating 4/5 rating 5/5 rating
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research
Desire for commercialisation
Technology readiness
Download figures and diagrams from the Biomimicry Innovation website
What was your technology readiness level when approached by investors?
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TRL2 - Technology concept formulated TRL3 - Experimental proof of concept
TRL4 - Technology validated in the lab TRL5 - Technology validated in a relevant environment (industrially relevant environment in the case of key enabling technologies) TRL6 - Technology demonstrated in a relevant environment (industrially relevant environment in the case of enabling technologies) TRL7 - System prototype demonstration in an operational environment TRL8 - System complete and qualified
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4% 12% 23% 27% 15% 10% 6% 3%
TRL1 - Basic principles observed
Desire by subject NO YES
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50%
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Research
50%
37%
50%
Engineering
Introduction
50%
Biology
63%
55%
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Chemistry
Design
45%
48% 52%
The main challenges and opportunities lie in enabling effective knowledge transfer from fundamental research to applied science and industrial applications.
It is critical to mentor the next generation of researchers by training them to understand a business mindset for better collaboration with industry partners and adopting a solutionoriented approach in the research development process. Based on our survey results, doctoral researchers with 12-18 months remaining are the ideal group for entrepreneurial support, as they are often in the process of deciding on their careers between academia and industry. Either
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route requires consistent support and mentorship to advance their biomimetic practice. Finally, we propose a more substantial alignment between research and UK national innovation strategies on a systems level. For example, a more interdisciplinary connected network and holistic funding schemes recognising the characteristics of a nature-inspired development cycle would enable a more effective knowledge-transfer process.
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Moving forwards
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Entrepreneurial training for junior researchers.
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Joint appeal for funding from Technology Readiness Levels 4 to 8.
A solution-oriented approach to the R&D process.
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Industry industry
The UK Government has laid its plans in the 2021 policy paper, ‘UK Innovation Strategy’1 to develop “private sector innovation by making the most of the UK’s research, development and innovation system”.
Download figures and diagrams from the Biomimicry Innovation website
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Within the UK Innovation Strategy, the UK Prime Minister’s plan is to place science, innovation and technology at the heart of his vision for the UK to be a ‘science superpower’2 by 2030. These set out in four pillars3:
So how does nature-inspired innovation align with these objectives? By exploring the seven technology families identified
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Unleashing Business – We will fuel businesses who want to innovate.
in the report: Advanced Materials and Manufacturing; AI, Digital and Advanced Computing; Bioinformatics and Genomics; Engineering Biology; Electronics, Photonics and Quantum; Energy and Environment and Technologies; Robotics and Smart Machines, we carried out a keyword search of related terms to identify trends in academia.
Institutions & Places – We will ensure our research, development and innovation institutions serve the needs of businesses and places across the UK.
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People – We will make the UK the most exciting place for innovation talent.
Missions & Technologies – We will stimulate innovation to tackle major challenges faced by the UK and the world and drive capability in key technologies.
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Biomimicry Innovation Lab, via our membership of the Bessemer Society4, were one of the stakeholders who contributed to this strategy.
1
Download figures and diagrams from the Biomimicry Innovation website
Keyword trend Manufacturing
16.7% 13.4%
Neuroscience
10.6%
Artificial Intelligence
10.4%
Medicine
10.3%
Sensors
9.4%
Circular Economy
8.7%
Robotics
8.4%
Renewable Energy
6.5%
Water
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5.7%
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How does nature-inspired innovation align with UK Government net zero targets? The UK’s new target that passed into law in 2019 is to slash emissions by 78% by 2035, as detailed in the Net Zero Strategy6. The Net Zero Strategy aligns with the Industrial Decarbonisation Strategy7 launched in 2021. These link up with the ten focus areas of Net Zero Innovation Portfolio8, ranging from future offshore wind through to industrial energy efficiency.
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Materials
We carried out a non-exhaustive keyword search (244 keywords and phrases) without using a fuzzy search algorithm. It is clear that the UK has a solid research momentum into nature-inspired manufacturing, materials, and AI and machine-learning. In addition, there are strong links between each of the four pillars and the Joint Action Plan on Standards for the Fourth Industrial Revolution5. We will be exploring this in further detail in the next stage of this project.
How does nature-inspired innovation align with the UK’s net zero targets?
78%
by 2035, with the Net Zero Strategy6.
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industry
The UK’s new target that passed into law in 2019 is to slash emissions by
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Here we highlight the range of keywords and phrases in nature-inspired research fields and topics that align with various environmental targets proposed by the UK government, the top ten largest companies on the FTSE 1009 and various leading NGOs.
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Materials715, Medicine329, Robotics230, Neuroscience127, Manufacturing81, Sensors78, Modelling & Simulation68, Machine Learning65, Water54, Artificial Intelligence51, IoT50, Optimisation42, Composite Materials32, Building30, Bioinformtics29, Healthcare28, Data Science27, Renewable25, Fuel25, Plastic24, Intelligence24, Form/structure Innovation24, Wave23, Infrastructure20, Wind20, Construction19, Cardiovascular19, Fluid Dynamics19, Mining18, Renewable Energy17, Genetics17, Additive Manufacturing16, Biotech15, Semiconductor14, Turbine Development12, Biopharmaceuticals11, Fuel Cell10, Conservation10, Reinforcement Leaning10, Circular Economy7, Energy Storage7, Gut Health7, Future Mobility7, Hydrogen6, Energy Conversion6, Automation6, Carbon Capture6, Image Analysis6, Natural Materials6, Translational Research6, Data Analysis5, Minerals5, Autoimmune5, Bioscience5, Immune Systems5, Nutrition5, Respiratory5, Supply Chain4, Oil and Gas4, Packaging4, EEG4, Waste Management3, Investment3, VR3, Structural Engineering3, System Engineering3, Agentbased Modelling3, Cyber Security3, Decarbonisation3, Inflammatory3, Vaccines3, Green Operation2, Biofuel2, Energy Efficency2, Natural Language Processing2, XR2, Digital Twin2, Geoscience2, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle2, User Experience2, Industry 4.01, Greenhouse Gas1, Impact Assessment1, Carbon Footprint1, LCA1, Clinical Research1, Pharmaceuticals1, Borates1, Coal-fired Power1, Computational Material Science1, Copper1, Digital Healthcare1, Energy Management1, Environmental Footprint1, Oxidant1, Smart Systems1, Net Zero1, Salt1
Sustainability focus
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Successful nature-inspired innovations tend to align commercial, environmental and social interests in a variety of ways. During our research, we identified significant connections between the UN Sustainable Development Goals10 and some promising nature-inspired research in different fields such as energy, carbon and materials.
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Thus, painting an emerging picture of next-generation climate-positive innovations. We curated a series of UK focused nature-inspired innovation case studies based on an environmental-focused taxonomy developed in Terrapin Bright Green’s report, Tapping into Nature11.
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One cannot draw a direct correlation between nature-inspired solutions and sustainability. However, we can harness their great potential in generating positive-sum solutions between humanity and nature with a rigorous and critical approach.
Nature-inspired innovations can potentially align with Sustainable Development Goals12 directly and indirectly via a systems-led approach to influence the remaining goals.
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The concept of ‘needs’, in particular, the essential needs of the world’s poor, to which overriding priority should be given; The idea of limitations imposed by the state of technology and social organization on the environment’s ability to meet present and future needs.”
The pyramid model12 or ‘wedding cake’ created by the Stockholm Resilience Center crucially highlights how we should consider the SDG’s in a system by aligning the biosphere, social and economic pillars that Brundtland laid out in Our Common Future. Natureinspired innovation needs to ensure that it works towards these targets to contribute to a sustainable and regenerative future. We are building up case studies linking nature-inspired innovation to Sustainable Development Goals. Please feel free to add to this list your projects you can find the link on the Biomimicry Innovation Lab website.
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Sustainable development goals
Sustainable development, as coined in Our Common Future11 (1987) report, “is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. It contains two key concepts:
Carbon As the fourth most abundant element in mass in our universe, carbon has always been in a complex relationship with human societies. While it is the most fundamental element of
Sustainable Development Goals
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living organisms, it is also a great contributor to climate change in terms of greenhouse gases. How might we harness carbon as an abundant resource and leverage its circular flows within natural systems?
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How might we harness carbon as an abundant resource and leverage its circular flows within natural systems?
Biohm Drawing inspiration from natural materiality, Biohm creates regenerative biomaterials such as organic refuse bio-compound and mycelium insulation tiles for the building and construction industries. In addition, their communityled biomanufacturing facilities are regenerative, transforming waste and industrial by-products. Biohm converts one of the world’s fastest-growing waste streams - food waste - into valuable and functional materials formed into sheets or moulded to create intricate three-dimensional products.
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Biohm is a regenerative biomanufacturing company that creates biomaterials from mycelium and organic waste. They make sheet and construction materials with higher performance than traditional plastic/
petrochemical-based materials and a carbon-negative footprint. The manufacturing process is estimated to be carbon-negative, sequestering at least 16 tonnes of carbon per month. As a biomanufacturer, Biohm works with natural materials to grow their insulation. In addition, Biohm is utilising waste management partnerships with industrial partners to transform waste into new materials, such as Orb.
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Orb is 100% biodegradable, vegan, sustainable and renewable by sourcing waste by-products from the food production or agricultural sectors. The team processed it into a homogenous filler bound with their unique and completely organic binder to form an affordable and sustainable replacement for wood-based sheet materials. Biohm has raised $2.33 million as of July 2021.
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Water According to the UN Water Report 202113, water use has been growing more than twice the population growth rate in the last century. At the same time, water scarcity has affected every continent.
Sustainable Development Goals
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Our agriculture, industrial processes and daily life are deeply dependent on it. How might we learn from the ways nature harnesses water as an essential resource for living processes?
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How might we learn from the ways nature harnesses water as an essential resource for living processes?
The Sahara Forest Project
The Sahara Forest Project is a novel environmental solution to create revegetation and green jobs through profitable food, water, clean electricity and biomass in desert areas. Exploration, the UK-based regenerative design and architecture practice jointly initiated the Sahara Forest Project in 2008. It assembled the initial group of collaborators, which later became formalised as a stand-alone company, ‘Sahara Forest Project AS’, based in Oslo. Inspired by the unique way Namibian Beetles harvest water from the night fog using reflective structures on their back, Exploration collaborated with ARUP to build a greenhouse inside the Sahara desert. The core technologies with the Sahara Forest Project are a seawater-cooled greenhouse inspired by the Namibian fogbasking beetle, photovoltaic
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and concentrated solar power technologies and desert revegetation techniques. Secondary technologies include algae for biofuels, salt processing to extract valuable elements and compounds, plants that can grow directly in seawater, and BioRock™. The one hectare Pilot Facility results have provided the information necessary to establish
a 20 hectare Sahara Forest Project Test and Demonstration Centre. The greenhouses achieved productivity levels equal to commercial greenhouses in Europe (75kg/m2/yr) with half the freshwater of conventional approaches. A facility with 60 hectares of greenhouses can provide all the cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers and aubergines currently imported into Qatar.
Materials Materials are the fundamental medium of human utility. It is also the most direct way we consume natural resources. The various properties of materials such as structures, sources, and processing influence its functions and have tremendous environmental
Sustainable Development Goals
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implications. Over the past centuries, we’ve been extracting materials from nature and generating waste on an enormous scale. How might we transition our inefficient and wasteful material flows to regenerative ones by learning from biological and ecological systems?
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How might we transition our inefficient and wasteful material flows to regenerative ones by learning from biological and ecological systems?
Zentraxa
Inspired by nature, Zentraxa creates bespoke biomaterials through precision material engineering to solve the toughest challenges in different industries. They have developed a sustainable and scalable process with guaranteed material qualities and stability. With their nature-inspired technology, Zentide, their material can go beyond the conventional limits of biopolymer synthesis. Through millions of years of evolution, nature has found solutions to the most challenging problems. The Zentide process is scalable and sustainable by design and promises tailor-made solutions to offer performance & stability without sacrifice. The Zentide platform’s core is scalability, ensuring the ingredients are commercially viable and can easily be incorporated with existing systems. Zentide is particularly effective at producing difficult-to-make materials,
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which can be the vital performanceenhancing element in everyday products. Combined with their comprehensive technical know-how, Zentide allows people to push boundaries and develop sustainable products with improved performance. The aim is to circumvent the limits of conventional biopolymer synthesis to access the full diversity within natural systems. As of February 2021, Zentraxa has raised $1.19 million.
Energy Sustainable Development Goals
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rising energy consumption14 within our planet’s capacity. In nature, evolution has developed optimised energy storage and transition systems functioning well under uncertainty and limitations. So how might we learn from nature to create a more efficient and low-carbon energy system?
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How might we learn from nature to create a more efficient and low-carbon energy system?
Energy is the currency of human social functioning. It powers everything from our metabolism and electricity, to transport and manufacturing. As our population size and living standards continue to elevate at accelerating rates, it is vital to develop a more efficient energy system to balance our
Arborea Arborea’s food ingredients and proteins are wholly vegan, No-GMO, hormone-free and often carbon neutral. In addition, the unique functioning mechanisms of the BioSolar Leaf impedes contamination to produce the safest and purest ingredients. Arborea’s team developed a breakthrough cultivation system, the BioSolar Leaf, which harnesses natural photosynthesis in a radically new way. Thanks to sunlight, the technology facilitates the growth of microscopic plants to produce healthy food ingredients, all while generating breathable oxygen and sequestering large amounts of carbon dioxide,
Photo credit: Annie Spratt @Unsplashed
Arborea’s cutting-edge cultivation technology mimics a real leaf’s function of self-maintaining the ideal growth conditions in consistency at different scales and with the smallest energy inputs. Furthermore, it uniquely sequesters CO2 from most exhaust gasses, even with poor CO2 concentration and at atmospheric pressure.
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a significant contributor to climate change. The teams at Arborea spent five years researching the best way to grow organic, healthy food ingredients with the smallest environmental impact. They aim to feed the world’s present and future generations while preserving our planet. As of July 2021, Arborea has raised $4.51 million.
Optics & Photonics Optics studies the properties and behaviours of light, whilst photonics concerns the generation, detection and manipulation of light. They are both closely related to our life in terms of lighting, optical data transmission, electronics, energy and pigmentation. While sunlight is also essential to the majority
Sustainable Development Goals
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of biological processes, there is a portfolio of photonic strategies such as light absorption, reflection and guiding in nature for inspiration. How might we learn from nature to harness light in a more effective way that improves our manufacturing process, energy generation and operation efficiency?
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How might we learn from nature to harness light in a more effective way that improves our manufacturing process, energy generation and operation efficiency?
Impossible Materials Titanium dioxide is the most used colourant globally, found in the white traffic stripes painted on roads, sunscreen and toothpaste, and even in powdered doughnuts. However, titanium mining has an environmental cost and titanium dioxide nanoparticles have recently been labelled as a suspected carcinogen. In search of an alternative, researchers studying the bright white Cyphochilus beetle found that the thin layer of scales on its exoskeleton acts as a highly optimized scattering structure, giving the beetle its bright white colouration. Impossible Materials mimics this structure with cellulose, creating a safer and better performing white pigment. 68
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The Bio-inspired Photonics group from the University of Cambridge has developed a cellulose-based white pigment, taking inspiration from the structure of the white Cyphochilus beetle scales. These white cellulose pigments are currently scaled and commercialized as a sustainable alternative for titanium dioxide (TiO2). This research output has evolved into a biotech start-up called Impossible Materials, a Cambridge University spin-out company enabling cellulose-based pigment solutions.
Regulators are banning the use of TiO2, ruling it unsafe as a food additive (“E171”) and threatening other healthsensitive segments. Additionally, largescale strip mining and non-degrading nanoparticle usage make TiO2 a threat to our environment. As a result, users of TiO2 are forced to seek sustainable alternatives while current substitutes lack performance. Impossible Materials were a finalist in the 2021 Ray of Prize.
Thermoregulation Thermoregulation is the ability of organisms to keep temperature homeostasis within their body. The diversity of natural habitats have shaped many efficient strategies in different species to cope with the fluctuations and extremities in
Sustainable Development Goals
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environmental temperatures. How might we learn from anatomical, physiological and behavioural mechanisms to create carbonefficient innovations for thermal control processes?
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How might we learn from anatomical, physiological and behavioural mechanisms to create carbon-efficient thermal control processes?
Nova Laboratories Nova Laboratories have developed VitRIS and HydRIS technology for sugar‑glass stabilisation to improve long‑term vaccine storage, inspired by the process of anhydrobiotic organisms, such as tardigrades and brine shrimp, to protect themselves during suspended animation. Firstly, the vaccine is spray-dried using sugar syrup to form microscopic glass spheres (VitRIS™ technology). Finally, the dry vaccine is suspended in an inert liquid, injected into muscle where bodily fluids reactivate the vaccine (HydRIS® technology).
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Anhydrobiosis is when organisms become almost entirely dehydrated, losing up to 95% of their stored water and entering into a state of suspended animation. These organisms can survive in this state for several decades. To enter this state, the organism creates different proteins and sugars that help protect its cells. They do this by replacing the water with a sugar solution that thickens to the point of solidifying as a glass. Once the
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organism takes up water from its surroundings, it can reactivate its cells and return to life. Nova Laboratories has identified that preparing vaccines that do not need refrigeration has been recognised as one of the main challenges in global health. In the developed world, maintaining cold chain storage is estimated to cost up to $200m (£125m) p.a. and increases the cost of vaccination by 14–20%.
Scientists at Oxford University showed it was possible to store two different virus-based vaccines on sugar-stabilised membranes at 45°C for 4–6 months without any degradation. Furthermore, this approach could keep the vaccines more than a year at 37°C with negligible losses in the amount of viral vaccine re-obtained from the membrane.
Fluid Dynamics Fluid dynamics studies the flow of liquids and gases. It has been applied in optimising mobility by reducing energy loss, such as vehicle design and petroleum transportation. In nature, lifeforms residing in fluid systems have Sustainable Development Goals
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evolved highly energy-efficient structures to facilitate motions, such as vortex flows and fractal structures. How might we learn from nature to reduce energy loss in transporting with and within fluid systems?
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How might we learn from nature to reduce energy loss in transporting with and within fluid systems?
Animal Dynamics
Animal Dynamics is a developer of autonomous vehicles created to provide unique, efficient, resilient and stealthy vehicles inspired by nature. Their technology includes vehicles and machines based on animal motions using biomimetic methods, enabling the military and other corporations to use more efficient and robust systems capable of performance beyond anything currently found in nature or engineering.
Animal Dynamics’ mission is to deliver bio-inspired solutions that positively impact and protect both nature and humanity and bring innovative market systems that radically improve the way cargo is delivered. Recent developments in computational analysis allow
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Animal Dynamics to evaluate these systems more precisely. They aim to disrupt existing markets by building machines with significantly higher energy efficiency. Finding alternative fuel sources is essential for our future, and is equally important that alternative systems of movement use fuel more
efficiently. Analysing natural systems brings us closer to understanding nature and an appreciation of the extraordinary precision and elegance of animal movement. As of May 2020, Animal Dynamics has raised $16.9 million.
Data & Computing Through advances in computation technologies, we can emulate biological processes in digital format at a level of complexity like never before. This significantly broadened the application areas of natural mechanisms, such as using ant colony models to solve
Sustainable Development Goals
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routing problems, simulating living organisms to test out new drug experiments and novel biomimetic sensors software. So how might we harness natural intelligence by digitally replicating mechanisms and living processes in our computational world?
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How might we harness natural intelligence by digitally replicating mechanisms and living processes in our computational world?
Systems An ecosystem is a sum of all the organisms and their environment with energy, material, and information flows that connect and circulate as a functional collective. The structures and relations enable an interdependent, cyclic and robust
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organisation that functions in dynamic balance despite limitations of resources and fluctuations. So how might we learn from nature to design resilient agriculture, industrial and urban systems that thrive in equilibrium within the planetary boundaries?
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So how might we learn from nature to design resilient agriculture, industrial and urban systems that thrive in equilibrium within the planetary boundaries?
Ngenics Ngenics is an electronic design automation (EDA) company specialising in optimisation software using evolutionary algorithms. Our understanding of evolutionary algorithms and their application to various aspects of engineering is founded on more than 20 years of research by Professor Andy Tyrrell at the University of York. Ngenics, Circuit Optimisation tool MOTIVATED equips circuit design engineers with an accurate multiobjective optimisation flow which can provide a range of optimised solutions with one run. Through the reduction of the need to run parameter sweeps, Monte-Carlo simulate-tweak-simulate operations. By searching a vast design space with authentic multi-objectives, one can find the best possible solutions and bring process variability early
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into the design cycle and optimise designs to work within these limits. MOTIVATED optimises circuits for multiple performance objectives quickly and cost-effectively by exploiting our unique automated and scalable, multi-objective design optimisation framework. As of 2021, they have raised $330k.
Industry
Funding
What next?
Appendices
Barriers to innovation
Sources: ISO TC 279 Innovation Management.
Despite opportunities with investors, most actors in the space are unable to transition from validated technology to system completion. This is due to barriers related to funding, time and skills.
77
Innovation is difficult for any industry with a 90% failure rate16 amongst start-ups. As a result, multinational companies would instead merge with competitors or buy smaller companies to stay ahead of the competition. While the challenges in the development process vary in different contexts, our research has identified some commonalities. For example, many interviewees expressed difficulties in forming effective partnerships with researchers and sourcing funding to move across TRL stages.
An interviewee
Introduction
Research
Industry
Funding
What next?
Appendices
90% fail rate amongst start-ups in an industry where innovation is difficult for many.
industry
What are the main challenges faced by industry when working on capitalising on nature-inspired innovation? Despite being an exciting journey developing a nature-inspired solution, there are many roadblocks accompanied at different stages from ideas to reality.
Innovation focus Innovation is defined as a new or changed entity realising or redistributing value.15
Other
3.7%
Technical
Economic
14.9%
As previously discussed, diversity in the application is the main character in nature-inspired innovation. This is also shown in the wide range of answers from the survey with a bigger trend in sustainability-oriented innovation.
Ecological
9.0%
Sustainability
Social
23.9%
12.2%
Environmental
15.4%
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Introduction
Research
Industry
Funding
What next?
Appendices
industry
20.7%
Barriers to innovation
Download figures and diagrams from the Biomimicry Innovation website
What are your most significant barriers to successful innovation?
industry
Financial
External market
39.7% 79
Introduction
15.9%
Research
Industry
Skills
Time
Other
Internal risk
15.9%
14.3%
9.5%
4.8%
Funding
What next?
Appendices
Collaboration
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Industry
Funding
We collected data from 143 respondents in various sectors to identify their most significant barriers to successful innovation. Despite finance being the most common challenges across various industries, external market, market needs, a lack of specialised skill sets and time are also major factors that affect the development process. One-third of these partnerships do not lead to commercially viable solutions. The funding barrier emerges at TRL 4 when validated technology in the lab
What next?
Appendices
does not appeal to investors. Researchers tend to think that they need more time to build on lab-validated technology. However, their prototypes require additional time to be validated in relevant industry environments. Industry actors demonstrate difficulties in aligning goals with their research partners. This usually happens when a research-led project fails to identify a common ground between academic and commercial success.
industry
We explored the challenges faced by participants with active partnerships with universities. Differences in mindset and workflow in academia and industry are the main contributors to the collaboration challenges in the developmental phases.
14%
14%
14%
Difficulty in getting alignment amongst researcher, University and company on commercial terms for sharing intellectual property/patents
14%
Lack of internal people/skills to direct the R&D towards commercial viability
10%
10%
24%
21%
Cost and time to complete R&D to develop a commercially viable product were too high
7% 7%
7%
Role of the Research and/or University in the future direction of the research/innovation
7%
Commercial application & viability of innovation was unclear
Figures rounded up may not add up to 100%.
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Industry
Funding
What next?
Other
Appendices
industry
21%
24%
Research/innovation was at a very early stage (TRL 1-3)
Download figures and diagrams from the Biomimicry Innovation website
Moving forwards There is no dearth of partnerships between academia and industry actors. However, several factors should be institutionalised to make them sustainable, commercially viable, and successful. These partnerships should start either at TRL 1, when stakeholders start to ideate and formulate their nature-inspired innovations OR at TRL 4, when technology has been validated in a lab setting. However, there is not enough funding to validate it in other environments or develop it further for “market readiness.
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Funding
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Appendices
When a partnership has been commercially viable, the following success factors are mentioned: financial resources, technological capability, societal impact, level of commitment among the people involved, a potent combination of academic and industry expertise and, finally, enough time and resources, to overcome challenges. As previously stated, an often overlooked factor in strengthening such partnerships and keeping them sustainable is mentoring young scholars within a framework that applies to real-world situations and industry concerns.
industry
One of the challenges we identified in this research analysis is making academiaindustry partnerships on nature-inspired innovations more commercially viable.
1
The main struggle is transforming academics, into businessmen or bridging both of them. It really depends on the academic environment. An interviewee
2 83
Introduction
Research
Industry
Funding
Solution-orientated approach to reinforce the trend of nature-inspired innovation in industry.
What next?
Early stage partnership among stakeholders.
Appendices
industry
Changing the risk adverse attitude of the investmet market to novel ideas.
3
Funding
84
Introduction
Research
Industry
Funding
What next?
Appendices
funding
Our desktop research identified 350+ funding streams and commercialisation types ranging from research councils, foundations/charities, and philanthropy (e.g. The Wellcome Trust) to industrial partnerships for later research and development.
Overview
Download figures and diagrams from the Biomimicry Innovation website
85
Introduction
Research
Industry
Funding
What next?
University funded research is led by the institutions and comes from various sources to be awarded to researchers in that particular institution. Government-level research sits outside the different national research councils to address specific calls for innovation. We aim to provide services that help identify the most relevant grants for researchers and startups to further their R&D processes without diluting their stake in the companies.
Appendices
47% of major funding comes from research councils
funding
It is clear that the majority of funding, 47%, comes from research councils (the UK and globally) and via industry-specific links. The remainder is made up of the charity sector and philanthropy-based organisations that are connected to endowments or specific for-profit organisations.
Funding type
funding
81
40
Research Council
86
Introduction
Government
49
Philanthropy
25
Research
90
Charity
Universities
83
Industry
Industry
Funding
What next?
Appendices
Cleanteach Investments 2017 2018 2019 VC
2020 2021 Corp/ Strategic M&A
IPO/Liquidity
$0
87
Introduction
$200B
Research
Industry
Funding
What next?
Appendices
funding
PE
Overview The top investors relevant to the UK were Innovate UK2, Horizon 20203 and EIT Climate KIC4. The top acquirers were in the clean energy and waste management sectors which were Encavis, Chorus Clean Energy and Waste Management. Electric vehicles and clean energy lead both the public and private companies in the cleantech technology sector. 2018 was the outlier year as investment in Tesla pushed the capital raised to close to $200 billion. 70% of the clean technology deals since 2019 in the UK are in the
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An investment in Tesla in 2018 pushed the capital raised close to
clean energy sector. Construction, commercial products, automotive, and environmental services make up the remaining 30%.
$200bn
According to Crunchbase News5, several funds are available and actively scaling up their investments this year. Their focus is on clean manufacturing, energy efficiency, renewables, sustainable packaging, amongst others. The three significant funds in this area are Lowercarbon Capital Fund, New Climate Tech Fund IV, and Ecosystem Integrity Fund.
Industry
Funding
What next?
increase in cleantech investments since 2017
Top investors including... Horizon 2020, Innovate UK and EIT Climate KIC
Appendices
funding
$120bn
According to Pitchbook1, since 2017, there has been an increase in capital raised by cleantech investments, with total global deals averaging $120 billion.
LOHAS Investments Investments in Lifestyles Of Health And Sustainability
2017 2018 2019 VC
2020 2021 Corp/ Strategic M&A
IPO/Liquidity
$0
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Introduction
$160B
Research
Industry
Funding
What next?
Appendices
funding
PE
Overview The top investors relevant to the UK were Innovate UK, Horizon 2020 and SOSV6. The top acquirers were in the energy sectors Encavis7 with Canopy Growth8 focusing on medical-grade cannabis production. Electric vehicles and Healthcare lead public and private companies in lifestyle, wellbeing, and sustainability investments (LOHAS).
90
Introduction
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An investment in Tesla in 2018 pushed the capital raised close to
$160bn
35% of the lifestyle, wellbeing, and sustainability deals (LOHAS) since 2019 in the UK are in the food and agriculture sectors. This is followed by 20% in pharmaceuticals and drug discovery, 20% in electrical equipment, with the remainder in environmental services, construction and leisure facilities.
Industry
Funding
What next?
total global deals value by lifestyle, wellbeing and sustainability investments
Top investors included... Horizon 2020, Innovate UK and SOSV
Appendices
funding
$60bn
According to Pitchbook, since 2017 there has been a consistent level of capital raised by lifestyle, wellbeing, and sustainability investments (LOHAS), with total global deals averaging $60 billion. 2018 was the outlier year as investment in Tesla pushed the capital raised to close to $160 billion.
Material and Resources
Emerging spaces IT
Assistive Tech
205
240
Mental Health Tech AI-powered Drug Discovery
Real Estate Crowdfunding
IoT Security
185
213
206
Finance
Introduction
251
NFTs
295
Industry
Blockchain Real Estate
145 Funding
Livestock Health
101
53 Energy
Electric Vehicle Charing Infrastructure
450
Carbon Capture
42
What next?
Virtual Events
Sustainable Fashion
154
Decentralized Finance
Research
Hydrogen Energy
Small Satellites
404
91
70
B2B
110
Robotic Process Automation
91
Cellular Agriculture
260
funding
Quantum Computing
Healthcare
Indoor Farming
Appendices
Auto Commerce
142
109
B2C Inset-based Foods
130
Overview
According to the UK Business Angel Market 2020 report by the British Business Bank and the UK Business Angels Association, the top three areas that DeepTech invests in are: healthcare, software as a service, financial technology. This follows the global trend data from Pitchbook focusing on the UK only.
The most relevant in each sector to nature-inspired innovation: IT Quantum Computing, Digital Twins, Robotic Process Automation Business-to-Consumer (B2B) Small Satellites, Sustainable Packaging, Sports Tech Business-to-Business (B2C) Sustainable Fashion, Insect-based Foods, Smart Clothing Finance Decentralised Finance, NFT’s, Conversational Banking Healthcare Assistive Tech, AI-powered Drug Discovery, Neurotechnology Energy Electric Vehicle Charging, Hydrogen Energy, Carbon Capture Materials and Resources Indoor Farming, Cellular Agriculture, Desalination Tech
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Industry
Funding
What next?
Appendices
funding
Pitchbook focuses on seven emerging spaces that have the highest potential for growth according to their data, which is collected by identifying the quantity of emerging companies active in different sectors. These are Businessto-Business (B2B); Business-to-Consumer (B2C); Energy; Finance; Healthcare; IT; and Materials and Resources.
Ziylo 93
Introduction
Research
Ziylo has developed biomimetic glucose binding molecules for continuous glucose monitors and glucose-responsive insulins via an innovative technology platform, which could be a pivotal component to enable the next generation of insulin. Industry
Funding
What next?
Appendices
Ziylo is a spin-out from the Davis Research Group in the School of Chemistry at Bristol University. The team worked on the problem for many years before it was established as a startup company in 2014. It created a new technology that can potentially treat diabetes more effectively. The glucose binding molecules discovered by the team at Ziylo might lead to the development of insulins,
which can potentially remove the risk of hypoglycaemia when blood sugar levels fall below normal. The glucose binding molecules are synthetic molecules designed by Professor Anthony Davis at Bristol University, who has been at the forefront of research into synthetic sugar receptors for the last 20 years. In 2018, Novo Nordisk acquired Ziylo in a deal worth up to $800 million.
Challenges Out of 210 survey responses, the majority, 91.4%, of those wishing to commercialise would prefer to partner with entrepreneurs or licence their innovation than leave their research post and be a full-time entrepreneur. Junior scholars (masters, doctoral researchers and post-doctoral researchers) are three times (31.3%) more likely to wish to become and full-time entrepreneur. Joana Glasner writing in Crunchbase9 raises the point that many start-
We asked for flying cars. Instead we got 140 characters! Peter Thiel
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ups aren’t focusing on solving the significant planetary issues instead of fintech and online retail, with few having a climate focus. Raising capital for new ideas is still mostly found in traditional sectors instead of in areas of climate change and planetary health. According to Sifted10, the critical challenge for many start-ups is finding new hires. However, this is less about finding people who have the skills but forming a team with aligned core values and visions in sustainability.
funding
One of the key questions asked during our survey to researchers was the desire to commercialise. 69.8% of respondents expressed interest in commercialising their research.
Download figures and diagrams from the Biomimicry Innovation website
Partners with entrepreneurs to create start-ups, and split time between academia and the startup to get the innovation to market.
95
Introduction
Research
Industry
License the innovation to industry and continue focusing on academic work.
Funding
What next?
Appendices
06% Be an entrepreneur and start a company to focus on getting an innovation to market.
funding
36% 28%
Valley of death
Our survey responses have highlighted a valley of death between Technology Readiness Level 4 and Technology Readiness Level 5 in developing nature-inspired innovations. TRL2
TRL3
TRL4
TRL5
105
69 63
33
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Industry
Funding
What next?
Appendices
TRL6
At what TRLs do you face the biggest funding challenges?
At what TRL have investors approached you?
Where are your main challenges within nature-inspired solutions?
TRL7
TRL8
TRL9
funding
TRL1
At what level of TRL does your main research fall under?
Valley of death Different Success Criteria Investors are less likely to approach researchers until the innovation has been validated in either lab or industry conditions. Benjamin Joffe writing in TechCrunch12 on the SOSV Climate Tech Summit refers to David Tze, CEO of Novonutrients13, “You need to find investors who are willing to support a multistage, scale-up process as you go from a laboratory benchtop to the floor scale, to field pilot, to demo scale, to small, large and very large commercial scale … and that takes years.” There is the standpoint that researchers and the market have different success metrics. Validating and protecting the
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Industry
Funding
What next?
Appendices
Intellectual Property (IP) do not necessarily lead to commercial viability. Biofabricate14 defines TRL4 as the ‘ugly prototype’ which means this stage is more of a step towards the solution than the end goal. The big leap from 4 to 5 The primary funding challenges in the context of nature-inspired solutions are how to get to TRL5 and validate in industrially relevant environments. Unfortunately, many researchers will stop before this stage due to developmental and capital challenges that could completely pivot the focus of the prototype solution. These challenges are time-consuming, such as sourcing equipment outside university labs to scale up the testing.
funding
For our research, we asked several questions around the Technology Readiness Levels using the Horizon 202011 definitions. Our data from the researchers’ questions highlights the clear valley of death between TRL4 - validating in the lab and TRL5 - technology validated in the appropriate environment.
Valley of death The solutions mentioned in the report relevant to our context are selected as following: - Foster entrepreneurship within universities by adapting curriculum to encourage connections between disciplines and integrating entrepreneurs/VCs into university bodies
- Elaborate a charter of reporting and best practices on collaboration (open innovation, procurement) and takeovers - Key themes - industry (business) into science, and science into industry (business), to allow cross-overs
- Develop the pool of talent within the deep tech investor ecosystem. The report by Sifted, Respond, and the BMW Foundation - Herbert Quandt, titled Protect. Power. Transform. Tech Innovations Changing the World16, highlights information about how we can develop the suite of net zero technologies.
We don’t yet have the full suite of technologies to get to net zero economies by 2050. The 2020’s will be a key area of investment in Climate Tech. Celine Herweijer - Global Climate Change Leader, PwC
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Industry
Funding
What next?
Appendices
funding
The report by Sifted titled Scale Up Europe: How to build Global Tech Leaders15 highlights the challenges of companies scaling and attracting talents.
Valley of death
99
Introduction
Research
Industry
Funding
What next?
Strong academic ecosystem Europe is often decried for lagging behind the US and China in tech. However, it boasts some of the world’s leading universities, whose research is fuelling progress in technical and frontier domains, from materials science to quantum computing and Deeptech. According to a Reuters ranking17, Germany, the UK, and France lead the way for the most universities ranked in the top 100 for innovation.
Appendices
Cambridge University is contributing to everything from Edtech to Smart Cities. London’s Imperial College has formed innovation labs and a hackathon spirit with focuses on highly relevant challenges such as Covid protective equipment, regenerative medicine and energy materials The continent’s academic ecosystem is a great source of intellectual pioneers, entrepreneurs and spinout companies entering the deeptech sector.
funding
Despite challenges in funding gaps faced by R&D, there has been a strong research momentum in the UK generating huge potentials for technology transfer. The UK is leading Europe’s tech for a good ecosystem with two hundred and twenty Tech for Good projects. The three leading sectors within this are digital democracy, health and care, and skills and learning. Even though the UK left the European Union, we still have access to new European Union Horizon innovation programmes that are currently tackling cancer, climate change, healthy oceans, climate-neutral cities, and healthy soil. The question is how might we design better funding systems that harness the research potential in the UK?
Time and capital
£5.96m
Our research has highlighted that, on average, researchers need 10.6 years and £5.96 million to reach TRL 8. Six years of this is research to get to TRL4, with a need of £2.84 million. Given that many doctoral researchers are funded for three years, there is a funding and time gap that needs to be overcome. To commercialise the project and reach TRL 8 ( system complete and qualified) can take up to another six years and £4.2 million.
needed on average along with 10.6 years including 6 years of research to get to TRL4
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Industry
Funding
What next?
Appendices
Many successful doctoral research projects begin at TRL 2or 3 after initial research, or continuation of research, from university research groups. Focusing on specific fields, our research found that Environment related projects require the highest capital at £7.9 million (33% above average). In contrast, Design requires £4.7 million (21% less than average).
funding
Innovation takes time and capital to develop. Through dissecting the time and capital needed for each stage of the development process in nature inspired innovation, we aim to provide a more accurate and practical guide for investors and funders.
Time and capital 33% £4.7m 10.6 34%
above average required for environmental projects
£2.84m required to reach TRL 4
TRL 4
years required for Chemistry, 15% higher than average
A further 6 years and
£6m
less than average time required for Design, 6.9 years
from TRL4 to market
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Research
required for Design, 21% less than average
Industry
Funding
What next?
Appendices
funding
6 years and
Moving forwards Moving forward, we strongly advocate a better-connected funding ecosystem that has a broader scope to accept interdisciplinary initiatives and provide support at a level that powers progress across Technology Readiness Levels in nature-inspired innovation.
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Industry
Funding
In conjunction, we will develop a network of investors who
What next?
Appendices
are willing to invest in both early concept experiments and commercially-ready start-ups, and provide access to industry opportunities through partnerships and/or open innovation challenges. Finally, a more effective funding policy would ideally provide sufficient support for projects to cross TRL’s as well as have an open focus area to empower interdisciplinary innovations.
funding
We will align with the opportunities identified in the KTN Innovate UK, Natureinspired Solutions Network Report18, with our aim to provide further access to funding for commercially-focused R&D. This correlates to the goals of UKRI and the UK Government’s Innovation Strategy.
1
Alignment with national innovation strategies.
funding
2 103
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Research
Industry
Funding
Funding policy tailored to the interdisciplinary nature of innovation.
Development of specialised investor networks.
What next?
Appendices
3
What next? What next?
The report is the first step in understanding the needs of the research community to enable greater collaboration with industry, and focus on commercialisation of ideas within the nature-inspired innovation space. Our research has identified a wide variety of research topics at different stages of maturity across the breadth and depth within the United Kingdom ecosystem. What is apparent is the need to appeal to a wider range of funding sources, and identify the potential industrial applications for many of these proposed technologies.
Innovation by itself confers only limited competitive advantage. The pioneering innovators in a new business arena almost never (less than 10% of the time) become big winners...we found no systematic correlation between achieving highest levels of corporate performance and being first into the game Jim Collins, Author - Beyond Entrepreneurship 2.0
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Industry
Funding
What next?
Appendices
105
Introduction
2
Fostering a closer partnership between researchers and industry is crucial in order to achieve success in market-focused research. Bringing in stakeholders at an early stage of research can help better align the research focus and the industry need as well as cultivate common languages. At the same time, they can also create roadmaps tailored to the development process of different types of research.
Research
Industry
Funding
What next?
More effective funding policies One of the significant challenges is the difficulty of getting funding for a project that sits across research council borders. In contrast, most of the funding bodies have relatively narrow interests. We advocate a more effectively designed funding policy that recognises and supports the value of interdisciplinary research. Furthermore, we advise funding bodies to tailor their funding size according to the typical amount of capital needed for nature-inspired research to move across each TRL level to maximise the efficacy of a funding round as well as avoid gaps, especially the valley of death.
Appendices
3
Entrepreneurial training for academics The entrepreneurial training of academics is vital to ensure they can assemble a team that effectively translates their knowledge into applications. For example, it is essential to communicate research output in ways that appeal to different stakeholders, collaborate with people from various backgrounds and network with potential collaborators and investors.
What next?
1
Stronger links between academia and industry
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Introduction
5
The UK government has been strengthening their innovation strategies, focusing on areas such as computation, energy and low carbon technologies. Coupling with the UK’s ambitious environmental goals, there is an up-and-coming niche attracting many stakeholders and resources for tech innovations that thrive within and protect the equilibrium of natural systems. Strategic alignments with these trends can be a crucial solution to overcome funding challenges at different stages of development.
Research
Industry
Funding
What next?
Strategically positioned network The critical insight from our research is that there is enormous potential for translating the rich repository of academic discoveries into real-world innovations if we can connect the right resources to the right people. We aim to facilitate the creation of interest networks, access to expertise across sectors and application-oriented activities via building a specialised platform for effective connections. We will connect researchers, industry and finance.
Appendices
6
Learning from successful models Analysing Pitchbook1 research from 2016 - 2020, the US has the most significant number of activities of billion-dollar start-ups followed by Asia and the EU, with nearly tenfold as the UK numbers at peak values. On the other hand, the UK has seen a rapid rise in venture investment since 2018. Coupled with substantial academic and talent resources, how might we harness the potential in the UK by learning from successful models from other major start-up hubs in terms of improving the innovation pipeline, and increasing accessibility to earlystage opportunities.
What next?
4
Alignment with UK Government’s Innovation Strategy
Contact us To contact us for further information, please reach out to us via our website or drop us an email.
Richard James MacCowan richard@biomimicryinnovationlab.com Sriram Nadathur sriram@nadathur.com Yuning Chen yuning@biomimicryinnovationlab.com
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Introduction Introduction
Research Research
Industry Industry
Funding Funding
What next?
Appendices Appendices
Appendices
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Introduction
Research
Industry
Funding
What next?
Appendices
Repository of Case Studies in the UK
McLaren
Simonics
Animal Alternative Technologies
Taking inspiration from sailfish’s air drag-reducing structures - the little ‘diplets’ on the torso of the fish fin – they created an ‘aero diblets’ structure on the arm of the McLaren P1 to provide support for its rear wing. Moreover, inspired by the fastest animals on earth, the overall design of P1’s shape mimics the fluid-dynamic-savvy form of a cheetah’s body to maximise its performance. The biomimetic texture significantly highers the efficiency of the car by increasing the amount of air going into the engine, which meets the essential need of P1’s hybrid engine that generates 903 horsepower for large scale combustion and engine cooling.
Simonics is an ethics-led software company that provides solutions to optimise the value of in-silico models. Driven by strong environmental missions, they promote corporate sustainability responsibility and facilitate key environmental protection initiatives for their global clients and collaborators by replacing, reducing and refining the use of animals for scientific experiments through nature-inspired in-silico modelling.
Amount of fundraised: $200k
Find out more at www.mclaren.com
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Introduction
Research
Through exploring and maximising the value of computer-based modelling, they explore technologies to accelerate and de-risk R&D processes. Find out more at simomics.com
Industry
Funding
What next?
Appendices
Animal Alternative Technologies is an engineering spin-out from the University of Cambridge that creates the Renaissance Farm®- a complete, scalable Cultured Meat manufacturing system. It includes all the raw materials, hardware (eg. bioreactors), software and crucial bioprocesses needed to empower food producers to make their own delectable Cultured Meats at commercial-scale, tailored to local tastes and desired specifications. Developed using pioneering technologies, Renaissance Farms® address the growing $2T global meat market to tackle worldwide food sustainability and security challenges. Find out more at www.animalalternativetechnologies.com/about-us
Notpla
Space Syntax
Shellworks
Amount of fundraised: $5.4M
Space Syntax research has led to a fundamental understanding of the relationship between spatial design and the use of space as well as its longer-term social outcomes. They develop theories and test them by studying the effects of spatial design on aspects of social, organisational and economic performance. Through integrating computational approaches at the heart of the design process, including structural, societal and environmental analysis, Space Syntax aims to develop the next generation of design solutions that combine machine learning, optimisation and technological innovation.
Amount of fundraised: $0.94M
Notpla is made from one of the most renewable resources in nature - brown seaweed. A type of algae that is actively deacidifying the oceans and can be made into materials without consuming land and fresh water resources. Further, it is biodegradable and home compostable, unlike PLA, which only decomposes under specific environments. The manufacturing process of Notpla is highly customisable. A bespoke machine that produces notpla cartridges will be developed based on specific requirements of the food manufacturers, co-packers and event organisers. Additionally, Notpla is also developing future products such as biodegradable heat sealable films and sachet.
Find out more at spacesyntax.com
Introduction
Research
Industry
Funding
In Shellworks, the lifecycle around the materials is designed to follow the cyclic flows in nature. For example, Vivomer, a material created by an abundant microorganism residing in both soil and marine environments, can become a food source of the same species at the end of their use life. Find out more at www.theshellworks.com/materials
Find out more at www.notpla.com
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Shellworks creates biomaterials inspired by nature from 2019. Manufactured by powerful bespoke machines, they developed a library of materials including base polymers, dyes and seals that provide a variety of holistic and compostable solutions fulfilling different needs.
What next?
Appendices
Mi-Solar
Tonkin Liu
Ross Lovegrove
The concept of Mi-Solar itself relates to a non tracking solar concentrator based on a structure seen in nature whose function has been proved over the millenia. By emulating nature, a solar concentrator has been built to harness the efficiency of this organic form. After a series of R&D processes, this technology has been tested and become a commercial alternative to existing CSP. Further, it can operate without the need for a tracking system and on a smaller land footprint.
Tonkin Liu is an award-winning art, architecture and landscape design agency that applies a refined set of principles to each and every project to ensure their work is consistently exemplary. Each design is based upon lessons learnt from nature. Collectively, these principles form the pillars of their practice. They achieve this via storytelling, technical innovation, minimising the use of materials and energy, capturing the usage of light, hierarchy, and integrating systems.
Ross Lovegrove is a visionary designer in the field of biomimetic art and design. His works always capture the logic and beauty of natural growth patterns as a result of multidisciplinary explorations. Inspired by the logic and beauty of nature, his design possesses a trinity between technology, materials science and intelligent organic form, creating what many industrial leaders see as the new aesthetic expression for the 21st century.
Find out more at tonkinliu.co.uk
Find out more at www.rosslovegrove.com/home
Find out more at www.mi-solar.co.uk
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Appendices
ASSA Studio
Faber Futures
Exploration
Applying additive manufacturing and digital technologies, Assa Studio captures the intelligence and adaptability of natural structures and applies them to their product design workflows. Assa Studio has been at the forefront of exploring the creative potential of additive manufacturing (3D printing) since 2003. It also launched one of the world’s first mass market 3D print products in 2004. By 2007, their design was integrating sensors and AI with bio-inspired mechanisms and forms to produce award winning work and participate in high profile gallery shows and exhibits, including the Design Museum and Science Museum. Assa Studio’s most recent work was done in collaboration with Kyoto University D-Lab’s macromolecular and bio-material scientists, which was mainly focusing on systems with radical manufacturing efficiencies.
Faber Futures is a design agency with a special focus on ecologicaldriven models for whole system innovation. Their interdisciplinary practices engage multiple stakeholders to ensure novelty and realworld impact with a broad partnership network across life sciences, design, technology, and society.
Exploration was established in 2007 by Michael Pawlyn after ten years of working at Grimshaw. It focuses on regenerative design approaches that go beyond conventional sustainable design. While sustainability often involves simply mitigating the negatives, regenerative design implies a more positive system that delivers substantial net benefits. The multiple environmental challenges of the present day compel us to find ways to restore ecosystems, build resilient communities, generate more clean energy than we use and, where possible, create in a way that takes carbon out of the atmosphere. Within the field of regenerative design, Exploration draws on two critical nature-inspired approaches: biomimicry and biophilia.
Faber Future is mainly focusing on the field of regenerative materials and biomanufacturing. Their mission is to bridge the technical, societal and ecological gaps that hinder the development of novel biomaterials by establishing deep collaborations with project partners and clients. Find out more at faberfutures.com
Find out more at assastudio.com
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Industry
Funding
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Find out more at www.exploration-architecture.com
Case Studies from around the world
Aquaporin
Cortical.io
Adaptive Surface Technologies
The essential building block in the water membrane technology of Aquaporin A/S is the aquaporin water channel protein. Biological membranes exist in bewildering complexity. Despite dramatic progress in our understanding, this complexity remains a significant challenge in our molecular understanding of how living cells maintain their integrity and perform their function. These natural membranes exhibit exceptional mechanical and chemical stability to a wide range of different external stresses. They thus have been a primary source of inspiration for artificial biomimetic membrane systems. Natural building blocks like lipids and synthetic components mimicking blockcopolymers are extensively used to create an artificial water filtration membrane. By focussing on specific components and features like the aquaporin protein and its stabilising cell membrane, we have made it possible to develop a biomimetic membrane and thus harness nature’s tremendous capability for selective membrane transport.
Amount of capital raised: $21.3M
Amount of capital raised: $15.85M
Cortical.io delivers AI-based solutions that mitigates the need of reviewing large amounts of documents or sifting through masses of text messages. Their patented approach, inspired by neuroscience, to natural language understanding enables human-level accuracy of results while saving organisations huge amounts of time and capital.
The slippery surfaces of pitcher plants are highly repellent to most other substances (liquids and solids). Adaptive Surface Technologies, a company spun out of the Wyss Institute, aims to produce porous, microstructured surfaces that traps a lubricating fluid, rendering the surface self-cleaning, highly slippery, and repellent of most contaminants.
Find out more at www.cortical.io
Find out more at aquaporin.com
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Find out more at adaptivesurface.tech
S2C Sweep Spread Carrier Technology
Calera
nanoGriptech
Offshore operation demands that all systems must work even under harsh conditions. The key to this success is to have a reliable data connection with any malfunction, increasing the operation’s risk. Under suitable conditions, currently available underwater modems can transmit data satisfactorily. However, a superior technology modem is required when the hydroacoustic conditions turn worse due to interfering noise and varying multipath propagation. Building upon eight years of studies on the physics of dolphin communication, EvoLogics has developed the patented Sweep Spread Carrier (S2C) technology.
Amount of capital raised: $60.5M
Amount of capital raised: $9.2M
The American Concrete Institute defines a Supplementary Cementitious Material as an “inorganic material such as fly ash, silica fume, metakaolin, or ground-granulated blast-furnace slag that reacts pozzolanically or hydraulically.” Calera’s Calcium Carbonate, made from CO2, can be used in a variety of applications. The material is produced as a fine, free-flowing white powder. It can function as a supplementary cementitious material (SCM) in traditional concrete mixes where the environmentally sustainable calcium carbonate can replace a portion of portland cement, helping reduce the overall carbon footprint of conventional concrete. The Calera calciumcarbonate can also be used as the sole cement or binder system in concrete products. For example, Calera developed wallboard and cement board products where the unique binder can be used instead of gypsum, magnesium oxide, calcium silicate or portland cement.
nanoGriptech’s Setex™ is the world’s first commercial implementation of dry adhesive technology—enabling a pressure-sensitive sticky approach, but one that is dry, repeatable, and residue-free. Setex™ dry adhesive solutions are for leading product designers and manufacturing engineers who are frustrated with the limitations of current non-repeatable, tacky and residue-prone alternatives. Currently available as a custom solution, Setex™ dry adhesive solutions are provided across a wide range of materials.
Find out more at www.s2ctech.com
Find out more at forterausa.com
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Find out more at setextechnologies.com
EEL Energy
CorWave
Encycle
Amount of capital raised: $5.19M
Amount of capital raised: $64.52M
The EEL Energy membrane optimizes energy transfer by coupling fluid flow with an undulating structure. The membrane undulates under moving fluid pressure. This periodic motion is transformed into electricity by an electromechanical system. Energy is converted along the whole length of the membrane surface. A monitoring loop ensures optimized energy conversion in response to changes in flow conditions and power transmitted. Worldwide patented technology.
CorWave products, CorWave LVAD and Nemo are a disruptive and patented pumping technology: the wave membrane. The membrane is the result of more than twenty years of research and development. It is capable of mimicking the native heart. This disruptive technology radically differentiates CorWave products from commercially-available rotary pump LVADs. In addition, it allows Neptune and Nemo to provide unique physiological blood flow.
Encycle’s advanced Swarm Logic HVAC energy management technology performs five critical functions within a closed-loop system to deliver up to 20% reductions in HVAC-related kW, kWh, and CO2. The process repeats itself 24/7/365, with Swarm Logic operating quietly in the background and requiring no human interaction to maintain or monitor its actions.
Find out more at www.eel-energy.fr
The wave membrane is a biomimetic technology inspired by the undulating movement of marine animals. This movement provides an efficient way for the animals to move fluid, propelling them through the water. In CorWave pumps, a polymer membrane reproduces a similar, though reversed, interaction: the membrane is fixed, and the fluid (blood) is propelled. Find out more at www.corwave.com
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Find out more at www.encycle.com
Bolt Threads
Another brain
Tissuim
Amount of capital raised: $218M
AnotherBrain has created a new kind of artificial intelligence, called Organic AI, very close to the functioning of the human brain and much more potent than existing AI technologies. A new generation of AI to widen limits of possible applications. Organic AI is selflearning, does not require significant data for training, is very frugal in energy and therefore truly human-friendly.
Tissuim was founded in 2013 to address one of the most persistent medical challenges since the inception of surgical procedures: reconstruct damaged tissue and restore its natural function. Tissum’s proprietary biomorphic programmable polymers enable tissue reconstruction and can adapt for use in multiple clinical areas. It will conform to and integrate with surrounding tissue to facilitate tissue reconstruction. In addition, it can adjust polymer building blocks to match tissue-specific requirements.
Bolt Threads believe that solutions to our most vexing problems can be found in nature. Every day we’re inspired by the exceptional materials we work with and are driven by the desire to turn these materials into incredible products that solve the problems of a resource-constrained world. We are a venture-backed, idea-driven company led by world-class talent and experienced executives from the technology and apparel industries, raising $218 million.
Find out more at anotherbrain.ai/
Find out more at boltthreads.com
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Find out more at tissium.com
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Bioinspiration
Glossary
Creative approach based on the observation of biological systems. Biodesign (Bio Design)
Bioengineering
Nature-inspired engineering
Application of engineering knowledge to the fields of medicine or biology.
Draws lessons from nature to engineer innovative solutions. Rather than imitating nature out of context or succumbing to superficial analogies, this scientific approach uncovers fundamental mechanisms underlying desirable traits, and apply these mechanisms to design and synthesise artificial systems that hereby borrow the traits of the natural model.
Biological system Coherent group of observable elements originating from the living world spanning from nanoscale to macroscale.
Biomimicry (biomimetism) Philosophy and interdisciplinary design approaches taking nature as a model to meet the challenges of sustainable development (social, environmental, and economic).
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Ecomimicry
Bionics
Ecomimicry is the practice of designing socially responsive and environmentally, responsible technologies for a particular locale based upon the characteristics of animals, plants and ecosystems of that locale.
Technical discipline that seeks to replicate, increase, or replace biological functions by their electronic and/or mechanical equivalents.
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The incorporation of living organisms or ecosystems as essential components, enhancing the function of the finished work.
Biomimetics Interdisciplinary cooperation of biology and technology or other fields of innovation with the goal of solving practical problems through the function analysis of biological systems, their abstraction into models, and the transfer into and application of these models to the solution.
References
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1 Horizon 2020 Work Programme 2014-2015 General Annexes: Technological Readiness Level. (2014). [online] Horizon Europe and ERC. Available at: https:// ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/ wp/2014_2015/annexes/h2020-wp1415-annex-gtrl_en.pdf. 2 NobelPrize.org. (n.d.). The Nobel Prize in Physics 2021. [online] Available at: https://www.nobelprize. org/prizes/physics/2021/summary/. 3 Laetitia Mailhes (2018). Earth Overshoot Day 2019. [online] Earth Overshoot Day. Available at: https:// www.overshootday.org/. 4 www.scopus.com. (n.d.). Scopus preview - Scopus - Welcome to Scopus. [online] Available at: https:// www.scopus.com. 5 PATENTS AND INNOVATION: TRENDS AND POLICY CHALLENGES ORGANISATION FOR ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT. (2004). [online] Available at: https://www.oecd.org/science/ inno/24508541.pdf. 6 Vincent, J.F.V., Bogatyreva, O.A., Bogatyrev, N.R., Bowyer, A. and Pahl, A.-K. (2006). Biomimetics: its practice and theory. Journal of the Royal Society, Interface, [online] 3(9), pp.471–82. Available at: https:// www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16849244. 7 Marshall, M. (2020). A radical new theory rewrites the story of how life on Earth began. [online] New Scientist. Available at: https://www.newscientist. com/article/mg24732940-800-a-radical-new-theoryrewrites-the-story-of-how-life-on-earth-began/. 8 Jacobs, S.R., Nichol, E.C. and Helms, M.E. (2014). “Where Are We Now and Where Are We Going?” The BioM Innovation Database. Journal of Mechanical Design, 136(11), p.111101.
1 Blue Planet Systems. (n.d.). Permanent Carbon Capture | Blue Planet Systems | Los Gatos. [online] Available at: https://www.blueplanetsystems.com/. 2 Yang, P. (2021). Liquid Sunlight: The Evolution of Photosynthetic Biohybrids. Nano Letters, 21(13), pp.5453–5456. 3 Anon, (n.d.). Technical University of Munich researchers explore using algae to make carbon fiber. [online] Available at: https://www.compositesworld. com/articles/technical-university-of-munichresearchers-explore-using-algae-to-make-carbonfiber. 4 Semanticscholar.org. (2019). Semantic Scholar - An academic search engine for scientific articles. [online] Available at: https://www.semanticscholar.org/. 5 The Russell Group. (n.d.). Russell Group | Home. [online] Available at: https://russellgroup.ac.uk/ 6 Partnership, N.R. (n.d.). N8 Research Partnership. [online] N8 Research Partnership. Available at: https:// www.n8research.org.uk/. 7 University Alliance. (n.d.). [online] Available at: https:// www.unialliance.ac.uk/. 8 SRPe. (n.d.). [online] Available at: https://www.srpe.ac.uk/ 9 MillionPlus: The Association for Modern Universities in the UK. [online] Available at: https://www.millionplus. ac.uk/. 10 Anon, (n.d.). GuildHE | Distinction and Diversity in Higher Education. [online] Available at: https:// guildhe.ac.uk/. 11 Heriot-Watt University. (n.d.). Professor Marc Desmulliez. [online] Available at: https://www.hw.ac. uk/uk/about/profile/governance/marc-desmulliez. htm.
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12 www.imperial.ac.uk. (n.d.). Home - Professor Ferdinando Rodriguez y Baena. [online] Available at: https://www.imperial.ac.uk/people/f.rodriguez. 13 Peterjbentley.com. (2021). Peter J. Bentley. [online] Available at: http://about.peterjbentley.com/. 14 UCL (2019). Marc-Olivier Coppens. [online] UCL Department of Chemical Engineering. Available at: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/chemical-engineering/people/ academic-staff/marc-olivier-coppens. 15 Biological Form + Function Lab. (n.d.). Exploring the mechanics of biological design. [online] Available at: https://www.bfflab.org/ 16 Photonic Structures in Nature and Bio-mimetic Materials. (n.d.). Index | Bio-inspired Photonics. [online] Available at: https://www.ch.cam.ac.uk/ group/vignolini/index. 17 Anon, (n.d.). Eric Lauga - Research. [online] Available at: https://www.damtp.cam.ac.uk/user/lauga/ research.html. 18 School of Design and Creative Arts, Loughborough University. (n.d.). Dr John McCardle, Loughborough University. [online] Available at: https://www.lboro. ac.uk/schools/design-creative-arts/people/johnmccardle/. 19 Kent School of Architecture and Planning - University of Kent. (n.d.). Dr Timothy Ireland. [online] Available at: https://www.kent.ac.uk/architecture-planning/ people/1081/ireland-timothy. 20 The University of Sussex. (2021). Prof Paul Graham. [online] Available at: https://profiles.sussex.ac.uk/ p91528-paul-graham. 21 Eusocial Insect Research Group, University College London. (n.d.). Research | The Sumner Lab. [online] Available at: http://www.sumnerlab.co.uk/450-2/ research/. 22 Industry and Innovation Research Institute and
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Faculty (n.d.). Professor Andrew Alderson | Sheffield Hallam University. [online] Available at: https://www. shu.ac.uk/about-us/our-people/staff-profiles/andrewalderson. Industry 1G OV.UK. (n.d.). UK Innovation Strategy: leading the future by creating it. [online] Available at: https:// www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-innovationstrategy-leading-the-future-by-creating-it 2G OV.UK. (n.d.). “We’re restoring Britain’s place as a scientific superpower.” [online] Available at: https:// www.gov.uk/government/speeches/prime-ministersarticle-in-the-daily-telegraph-21-june-2021. 3U K Innovation Strategy Leading the future by creating it. (2021). [online] Available at: https://assets. publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/ system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1009577/ukinnovation-strategy.pdf 4T he Bessemer Society. (2021). The Bessemer Society. [online] Available at: https://www.bessemer-society. co.uk/ For the encouragement of entrepreneurs and leaders of game-changing science and technology companies. 5G OV.UK. (n.d.). Standards for the Fourth Industrial Revolution: action plan. [online] Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ standards-for-the-fourth-industrial-revolution-actionplan#:~:text=This%20joint%20action%20plan%20 sets. 6G ov.uk (2019). UK Becomes First Major Economy to Pass Net Zero Emissions Law. [online] Gov.uk. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/ uk-becomes-first-major-economy-to-pass-net-zeroemissions-law.
7 GOV.UK. (n.d.). Industrial decarbonisation strategy [online] Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/ publications/industrial-decarbonisation-strategy. 8 GOV.UK. (n.d.). Net Zero Innovation Portfolio. [online] Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/ collections/net-zero-innovation-portfolio 9 London Stock Exchange. (n.d.). Table - FTSE 100 FTSE constituents | London Stock Exchange. [online] Available at: https://www.londonstockexchange.com/ indices/ftse-100/constituents/table 10 United Nations (2015). The 17 Goals. [online] United Nations. Available at: https://sdgs.un.org/goals. 11 World Commission on Environment and Development (1987). Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development: Our Common Future Towards Sustainable Development 2. Part II. Common Challenges Population and Human Resources 4. [online] p.41. Available at: https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/ documents/5987our-common-future.pdf. 12 Stockholmresilience.org. (2016). How food connects all the SDGs - Stockholm Resilience Centre. [online] Available at: https://www.stockholmresilience.org/ research/research-news/2016-06-14-how-foodconnects-all-the-sdgs.html. 13 UN-Water. (n.d.). Summary Progress Update 2021: SDG 6 — water and sanitation for all. [online] Available at: https://www.unwater.org/publications/ summary-progress-update-2021-sdg-6-water-andsanitation-for-all/. 14 Ritchie, H. and Roser, M. (2020). Energy Production and Consumption. [online] Our World in Data. Available at: https://ourworldindata.org/energyproduction-consumption. 15 ISO/TC 279. (n.d.). About. [online] Available at: https://committee.iso.org/home/tc279. 16 Bryant, S. (2019). How Many Start-ups Fail And Why? [online] Investopedia. Available at: https:// www.investopedia.com/articles/personalfinance/040915/how-many-start-ups-fail-and-why. asp.
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Funding 1P itchbook. (2019). Venture Capital, Private Equity and M&A Database | PitchBook. [online] Available at: https://pitchbook.com/. 2 I nnovate UK (2019). Innovate UK. [online] GOV. UK. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/ organisations/innovate-uk. 3H orizon 2020 - European Commission. (n.d.). Horizon 2020. [online] Available at: https://ec.europa.eu/ programmes/horizon2020/en/home. 4C limate-KIC. (2018). Climate-KIC. [online] Available at: https://www.climate-kic.org/. 5G lasner, J. (2021). Cleantech Funds Scaling Up To Take On Climate Change In 2021. [online] Crunchbase News. Available at: https://news.crunchbase.com/ news/cleantech-funds-are-scaling-up-in-2021/. 6 s osv.com. (n.d.). SOSV. [online] Available at: http:// www.sosv.com/. 7w ww.encavis.com. (n.d.). encavis · encavis.com. [online] Available at: https://www.encavis.com/. 8C anopy Growth. (2017). Canopy Growth | Cannabis Innovation on the World Stage. [online] Available at: https://www.canopygrowth.com/. 9G lasner, J. (2021). Cleantech Funds Scaling Up To Take On Climate Change In 2021. [online] Crunchbase News. Available at: https://news.crunchbase.com/ news/cleantech-funds-are-scaling-up-in-2021/ . 10 sifted.eu. (2021). Is there enough talent out there to keep sustainability start-ups hot? | Sifted. [online] Available at: https://sifted.eu/articles/sustainabilitystart-ups-talent/. 11 Horizon 2020 Work Programme 2014-2015 General Annexes: Technological Readiness Level. (2014). [online] Horizon Europe and ERC. Available at: https://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ ref/h2020/wp/2014_2015/annexes/h2020-wp1415annex-g-trl_en.pdf . 12 TechCrunch. (n.d.). Key takeaways from the SOSV Climate Tech Summit. [online] Available at: https:// techcrunch.com/2021/11/09/key-takeaways-fromthe-sosv-climate-tech-summit/. 13 NovoNutrients. (n.d.). How It Works. [online] Available at: http://www.novonutrients.com/.
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14 B iofabricate. (n.d.). Resources. [online] Available at: https://www.biofabricate.co/resources. 15 S ifted (2021). Scale-Up Europe: How to build global tech leaders in Europe. [online] Available at: https://content.sifted.eu/wp-content/ uploads/2021/06/15162949/Scale-Up-EuropeReport.pdf. 16 s ifted.eu. (n.d.). Tech Innovations Changing The World | Sifted. [online] Available at: https://sifted.eu/ intelligence/reports/tech-innovations-changing-theworld. 17 S taff, R. (2019). Reuters Top 100: Europe’s Most Innovative Universities 2019 announced. Reuters. [online] 30 Apr. Available at: https://www.reuters. com/article/rpbtop1002019-idUSKCN1S60PA. 18 N ature- Inspired Solutions Innovation Network Summary Report. (2021). [online] Available at: https://ktn-uk.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/ KTN_NatureInspired_InnovationNetworks_v2-1.pdf. What’s Next? 1 Pitchbook. (2021). PitchBook. [online] Available at: https://my.pitchbook.com/search-results/s115054943/ overview_tab.
Appendices
Resources Research papers Anon, (n.d.). Biomimetics - an overview | ScienceDirect Topics. [online] Available at: https://www.sciencedirect. com/topics/engineering/biomimetics Devine, B. (2011). Natalie Jeremijenko Connected Environments. Design and Culture, 3(3), pp.392–395. Head, P. (2009) ‘Entering an ecological age: the engineer’s role’, Proceedings of the ICE - Civil Engineering, 162(2), pp. 70–75. doi: 10.1680/ cien.2009.162.2.70. Jeśman, J. (2020). Bizarre Bio-Citizens and the Future of Medicine. The Works of Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg and Agi Haines in the context of Speculative Design and Bioethics. Przegląd Kulturoznawczy, (1 (43)), pp.55–69. Kerfeld, C.A. (2009). When Art, Science, and Culture Commingle. PLoS Biology, [online] 7(5). Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/ PMC2700620/ Milwich, M., Speck, T., Speck, O., Stegmaier, T. and Planck, H. (2006) ‘Biomimetics and technical textiles: solving engineering problems with the help of nature’s wisdom’, American Journal of Botany, 93(10), pp. 1455– 1465. doi: 10.3732/ajb.93.10.1455. Reichle, I. (2014). Speculative Biology in the practices of BioArt. Artlink. Contemporary art of Australia and the Asia-Pacific, vol. 34, no. 3, 2014, special issue, Bio Art: Life in the Anthropocene. [online] Available at: https:// www.academia.edu/8347347/Speculative_Biology_in_ the_practices_of_BioArt Sugg, S. and Rainbow, D.M. - (2014) BIOINSPIRATION’S FULL POTENTIAL? THE FERMANIAN BUSINESS & ECONOMIC INSTITUTE AT POINT LOMA NAZARENE UNIVERSITY. Available
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at: http://www.pointloma.edu/sites/default/files/ filemanager/3D_Study_Final.pdf. Vincent, J. and Mann, D. (2002) ‘Systematic technology transfer from biology to engineering’, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 360(1791), pp. 159–173. doi: 10.1098/rsta.2001.0923. Books Barker, G., Desjardins, E. and Pearce, T. (2014). Entangled life : organism and environment in the biological and social sciences. Dordrecht ; New York: Springer. Boye Ahlborn (2010). Zoological physics : quantitative models of body design, actions, and physical limitations of animals. Berlin: Springer. Bentley, P. (2010). Digital biology : how nature is transforming our technology and our lives. New York: Simon & Schuster. Camazine, S. and Al, E. (2003). Self-organization in biological systems. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Collins, J.C. (2020). Beyond entrepreneurship 2.0 : turning your business into an enduring great company. London: Random House Business. Church, G.M. and Regis, E. (2014). Regenesis : how synthetic biology will reinvent nature and ourselves. New York: Basic Books, A Member Of The Perseus Books Group. Craver, C.F. and Lindley Darden (2013). In search of mechanisms : discoveries across the life sciences. Editora: Chicago ; London: The University Of Chicago Press.
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French, M.J. (1994) Invention and evolution: design in nature and engineering. 2nd edn. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. Gates, B. (2021). How to avoid a climate disaster : the solutions we have and the breakthroughs we need. U.K.: Allen Lane, An Imprint Of Penguin Books. Ginsberg A. D., , Calvert, J., Schyfter, P., Alistair Elfick and Endy, A.D. (2017). Synthetic aesthetics : investigating synthetic biology’s designs on nature. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Mit Press. Godfrey-Smith, P., Ainsley Seago, Jewett, E. and Al, E. (2018). Other minds : the octopus and the evolution of intelligent life. London: William Collins. Grow by Ginkgo. (n.d.). Grow by Ginkgo | A Magazine About Synthetic Biology. [online] Available at: https:// www.growbyginkgo.com/ Gruber, P. (2011) Biomimetics in Architecture. Vienna New York: Springer Verlag GmbH. Hensel, M., Menges, A. and Weinstock, M. (2010) Emergent Technologies and Design: Towards a Biological Paradigm for Architecture. United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis, Inc. Hoagland, M.B. and Dodson, B. (1998). The way life works : the science lover’s illustrated guide to how life grows, develops, reproduces, and gets along. New York: Times Books. HölldoblerB., Wilson, E.O. and Margaret Cecile Nelson (2009). The superorganism : the beauty, elegance, and strangeness of insect societies / The superorganism : the beauty, elegance, and strangeness of insect societies. New York: W.W. Norton. Ichioka, S & M. W. Pawlyn, (2021) Flourish: Design Paradigms for our Planetary Emergency, Triarchy Press, London
Appendices
Kapsali, V. (2016). Biomimicry for designers : applying nature’s processes and materials in the real world. New York, New York: Thames & Hudson. Kirksey, E (2014). The Multispecies Salon. Duke University Press. Lowenhaupt, A. (2015). The Mushroom At The End Of The World : On The Possibility Of Life In Capitalist Ruins. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Morton, T. (2019). Humankind : solidarity with nonhuman people. London ; New York: Verso. Myers, W. and Antonelli, P. (2014). Bio design : nature, science, creativity. London: Thames And Hudson. Pawlyn, M. (2016). Biomimicry in architecture. 2nd ed. Newcastle Upon Tyne: Riba Publishing. Pearce, P. (1990) Structure in nature is a strategy for design. 5th edn. Cambridge: MIT Press. Stewart, I. (1998) Life’s other secret: the new mathematics of the living world. United Kingdom: Allen Lane the Penguin press. Thompson, D.W.W. (1961) On Growth and Form Abridged Edition. Cambridge, Eng: Cambridge University Press. Van Mensvoort, K(2020). Next Nature : why technology is our natural future. Amsterdam Next Nature Network. Journal of Design and Science. (n.d.). 4. Other Biological Futures · Journal of Design and Science. Vincent, J.F.V. (2012) Structural Biomaterials: Third Edition. 3rd edn. United States: Princeton University Press. Vogel, S. and Davis, K.K. (2000) Cats’ paws and catapults: Mechanical worlds of nature and people. New York: WW Norton & Co.
Survey Questions
Database and tools BioInteractive - http://www.hhmi.org/biointeractive BioM Database - https://bioinspired.sinet.ca/content/ biom-innovation-database Encyclopaedia of Life - http://eol.org/ Find Structure - http://findstructure.org/Default.aspx Natural History Museum Online - http://www.nhm. ac.uk/nature-online/index.html RGBE Databases - http://www.rbge.org.uk/databases The Macaulay Library - http://macaulaylibrary.org/ Tree of Life - http://tolweb.org/tree/phylogeny.html
Market Readiness of Nature-Inspired Solutions Survey Academia
Media
1. What field of research best fits your work?
Art, M. (2019). Fantastic Fungi, Official Film Trailer | Moving Art by Louie Schwartzberg. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxABOiay6oA BBC. (2021). BBC Sounds - 30 Animals That Made Us Smarter - Available Episodes. [online] Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/w13xttw7 Dr Rupert Soar (2019). A Moment of Convergence: how nature innovates through agents, swarms and algorithms. [online] Available at: https://youtu.be/ t1LbWgePCgo Marshall, L., Marshall, L., Goodall, J., Kester, K. and Morris, R. (2020). Meat the Future. [online] IMDb. Available at: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7197042/ Zygote Quarterly - https://zqjournal.org
(choose: Engineering, Design, Architecture, Chemistry, Physics, Biology, Environment, Computer Science, Social Sciences, Medicine, Other) 2. What is your primary research focus? (i.e. Civil Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Functional Surface, Industrial Design, Green Chemistry, etc.) 3. W hat keyword would you use most to describe your nature-inspired solutions work? (choose: Biomimicry, Biomimetic, Bioinspired, Bio-inspired, Bioinspiration, Biologically inspired, Biological inspiration, Bionic, Nature-inspired, Nature inspired, Ecomimicry, Circular economy, Other)
International research centres CEEBIOS https://ceebios.com/ Fraunhofer Institute https://www.fraunhofer.de/en.html GeorgiaTech https://bioengineering.gatech.edu/ Pelling Lab https://www.pellinglab.net/ V.I.N.E NASA Glenn Research Center https://www1.grc. nasa.gov/research-and-engineering/vine/ WYSS Institute https://wyss.harvard.edu/
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4. What is your current role? (choose: Masters-level researcher, PhD researcher, Post-doctoral researcher, Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, Researcher, Reader, Assistant Professor, Professor, Head of Department, Head of School, Faculty Lead, Vice-Chancellor, Other)
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5. Academic institution
TRL6, TRL7, TRL8, TRL9)
6. Department
13. W hy do you feel this is?
7. Primary research group
(choose: No availability of public grants/funds, Funds from public grants/funds are available but the quantum is too small to move to the next Technology Readiness Level, No availability of capital from industry, Funds from industry are available, but the quantum is too small to move to the next Technology Readiness Level, No availability of capital from angel/venture capital investors, Funds from angel/venture capital investors are available, but the quantum is too small to move to the next Technology Readiness Level, Other)
8. Field of research Research Technology Readiness Levels 9. At what level does your primary research fall? (Based on the H2020 Technology Readiness Levels.)(choose: TRL1, TR2, TRL3, TRL4, TRL5, TRL6, TRL7, TRL8, TRL9) 10. W hat are your main challenges within natureinspired innovation? (Based on the H2020 Technology Readiness Levels.) (choose: TRL1, TR2, TRL3, TRL4, TRL5, TRL6, TRL7, TRL8, TRL9) Research Funding 11. O n a scale of 1 to 5 (1 being less important and 5 being very important), how would you rank your desire to commercialise your research/innovation? 12. A t what Technology Readiness Level do you face the most significant funding challenges? (Based on the H2020 Technology Readiness Levels.) (choose: TRL1, TR2, TRL3, TRL4, TRL5,
14. A re there technology limitations (need to invent/discover new technology) to progress from your current TRL to the next? If so, (choose: Need completely new innovation/ technology?, Some technology/innovation exists, but need to combine with new innovation, The technology/innovation exists but must be adapted/transformed substantially, The technology exists and needs some modification/ adaptation, Other) 15. D oes solving the technology challenges/ limitations above require: (choose: Collaboration across disciplines/areas, Collaboration within the discipline but across researchers/universities, Collaboration with industry)
16. Please specify which industries. Commercialisation 17. Have you approached or been approached by potential investors/industry to commercialise your innovation? YES/NO 18. If yes, at what stage of the Technology Readiness Levels (1 to 8)? (Based on the H2020 Technology Readiness Levels.) (choose: TRL1, TR2, TRL3, TRL4, TRL5, TRL6, TRL7, TRL8, TRL8) 19. If you have received funding from investors/ industry, please identify key reasons why you said YES. 20. What were the critical challenges in your decision to accept/not accept funding? (1 being less severe and 5 being most severe.) (Choose in each statement 1 to 5: Confidentiality of innovation/research; Research/innovation was at a very early stage; Research driven by a commercial focus; Commercial terms for sharing intellectual property/ patents; Role in the future direction of the research/ innovation) 21. Is there something we have missed that is important in your decision-making process? 22. What is the approximate required amount of funding that you might need to progress your innovation across levels? (1 to 2, 2 to 3, 3 to 4, 5 to 5 , 5 to 6, 6 to 7, 7 to 8) (Choose: 0 - £250K, £250K - £500K, £500K - £750K, £750K - £1M, £1M - £1.25M, £1.25M - £1.5M, £1.5M £1.75 M, £1.75M - £2M) 23. What is the approximate amount of time that you might need to progress your innovation across levels?
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(1 to 2, 2 to 3, 3 to 4, 5 to 5 , 5 to 6, 6 to 7, 7 to 8) (Choose: 0 to 6 months, 6 to 12 months, 12 to 18 months, 18 to 24 months, 24 to 30 months, 30 to 36 months, 36 to 42 months) 24. P lease briefly describe your research and the potential commercial applications of your R&D. 25. I f you answered NO to Q17, would you be interested in reaching out to potential investors? YES/NO 26. I f you answered NO to Q17, what are your reasons?
32. Which specific field do you work in? 33. What is the size of your business? (Choose: Micro-enterprises; Small enterprises; Medium-sized enterprises; Large organisation) 34. W here does your organisation do most of the work? (Choose: Business to Business (B2B); Business to Consumer (B2C); Both; Other) Technical Challenges
41. W hat are your most significant barriers to successful innovation? (Choose: Skills; Time; Equipment; Financial; Internal risk; External market forces; Other) Technology Readiness Levels 42. W hat are your key challenge areas in terms of innovation? (Based on the H2020 Technology Readiness Levels.) (choose: TRL1, TR2, TRL3, TRL4, TRL5, TRL6, TRL7, TRL8, TRL9)
27. I f you answered YES in what way would you envisage commercialising your innovation?
35. D oes your organisation carry out R&D internally? YES/NO
(Choose: License the innovation to industry and continue focusing on academic work; Partner with entrepreneurs to create start-ups, and split your time between academia and start-up to help get your innovation to market; Be an entrepreneur and start your own company to focus on getting the innovation to market; Other)
36. I f not, what area of procurement do you focus on to keep your organisation at the forefront of the market?
28. I f there is anything else you would like to share, please do let us know.
37. I f yes, at what level do you begin to get involved?
Industrial Research & Development
(Choose: Idea generation and identification; Concept development; Development; Implementation; Other)
29. I s your organisation based in the United Kingdom & Northern Ireland? YES/NO
38. D oes your organisation have success criteria for innovation? YES/NO
(Choose: Collaboration across disciplines/areas; Collaboration within the discipline, but across the organisation; Collaboration within the industry; Other)
30. If not, then please tell us where?
39. I f yes, can you provide us with a short summary of this?
45. P lease specify which disciplines/areas you would like to collaborate with.
40. W hat is the main focus of your innovation processes?
Focus on Nature-inspired Innovation
31. In what industry are you working? You will be able to specify your particular area in the next question (e.g. aerospace, materials, automotive, marine, energy). (Choose: Engineering, Architecture,Construction, Product/Industrial Design, Pharmaceuticals, Manufacturing, Design Agency, ICT, Other)
Funding
What next?
(Choose: Researchers; Developers; Training; Equipment; Management and process consultants.; Other)
(Choose: Sustainability; Technical; Environmental; Social; Ecological; Financial; Other)
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43. A re there technological limitations (a need to invent/discover new technology) preventing progress from your current TRL to the next? If so, are they that: (Choose: New innovation/technology is needed?; Some technology/innovation exists but needs combining with new innovation(s); Technology/ innovation exists but must be substantially adapted or transformed; The technology exists but needs some modification or adaptation; Other) 44. D oes solving the technology challenges/limitations above require:
46. I s your organisation active in the nature-inspired solutions space? YES/NO 47. I f you don’t look to nature, what is your innovation process?
48. What are your key challenge areas within natureinspired innovation? (Based on the H2020 Technology Readiness Levels.) (choose: TRL1, TR2, TRL3, TRL4, TRL5, TRL6, TRL7, TRL8) 49. Are there technological limitations (a need to invent/discover new technology) preventing progress from your current TRL to the next? If so, is: (Choose: Completely new innovation/technology needed?; Some technology/innovation exists but needs combining with new innovation; Technology/ innovation exists but must be substantially adapted/ transformed; The technology exists but needs some modification/adaptation; Other) 50. Does solving the technology challenges/limitations above require: (Choose: Collaboration across disciplines/areas; Collaboration within the discipline, but across departments; Collaboration within the industry; Other) 51. Which specific disciplines/areas?
52. Have you collaborated with academia in the past? YES/NO 53. If you’ve licensed or collaborated with academia, please let us know the TRL level at which you started. (Choose: Collaboration across disciplines/areas; Collaboration within the discipline, but across the organisation; Collaboration within the industry; Other) 54. If you’ve not collaborated with academia in the past, what are the reasons behind this?
Introduction
55. W ould you license/collaborate with academia in the future? YES/NO 56. I f yes, at what Technology Readiness Level would you license a technology/innovation? (Based on the H2020 Technology Readiness Levels.) (choose: TRL1, TR2, TRL3, TRL4, TRL5, TRL6, TRL7, TRL8) 57. I f you wouldn’t license/collaborate with academia, what is the MAIN reason? 58. I s there a SECOND reason you wouldn’t license/ collaborate with academia? 59. F inally, do you have a THIRD reason If you wouldn’t license/collaborate with academia? 60. I f you have anything else that you would like to add, please feel free to let us know. Commercially Viable Products, Services, or Solutions 61. f you have anything else that you would like to add, please feel free to let us know. YES/NO
Industry and Academia
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62. I f the licensing/collaboration led to a commercially viable product/service/solution, what was the MAIN reason? 63. W as there a SECOND reason? 64. Was there a THIRD reason?
Funding
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dogeatcog A small and enthusiastic team striving to work with ethical clients to Create Good Trouble through design, brand and animation. Working as partners to local, national and global organisations, often within the education and conservation sectors, dogeatcog are specialists in illustration, editorial design and animation. With a social conscience, dogeatcog set up Drawsome! festival in 2015, with the aim to create an accessible and inclusive arts festival in York, placing up and coming creatives next to more established artists/ musicians and raising money and awareness for Bowel Cancer UK.
Drawsome!
York Design Week
York Creatives
We set up Drawsome! festival in 2015, with the aim to create a fully accessible and inclusive grassroots arts and music festival in York, placing up and coming creatives next to more established artists and musicians, with the aim of raising money and awareness for Bowel Cancer UK.
We co-founded York Design Week in 2019 with Kaizen Arts Agency and United by Design. Last year’s festival focuses on five themes, all with a central goal to create a ‘city of activists’, who we inspire to take responsibility for their locality, through the sub themes of Play, Make Space, Trust, Share and Re-Wild. The festival was a space for learning, exploring and doing – an invitation for citizens to roll up their sleeves, to build resilient, creative, healthy communities through art and design.
We are part of a wider network of creatives within the city, and have helped to spark regular informal networking events for anyone and everyone who would consider themselves as working within the creative industries. We offer an open door to all, and are delighted to welcome anyone thinking of a career change into the creative sector to find out more.
@drawsome_york
dogeatcog.co.uk @dogeatcog
yorkdesignweek.com @yorkdesignweek
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yorkcreatives.com @yorkcreatives
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