Dedicated to furthering the practice of bio-inspired design.

Welcome to the BioInspired Site!

The Bio-Inspired Design (BID) Community promotes the practical application of bio-inspired design, emphasizing the ‘challenge to biology’ approach.  The objective is to foster more effective and efficient methods for developing solutions based on natural principles.  The goal is to encourage the conscious application of principles that support and promote solutions facilitating sustainable human behavior and leading to successful products, services and systems initiatives.

Members of the community include current practitioners in the field of bio-inspired design; aspiring practitioners (the 'next wave'); facilitators; and people knowledgeable in human history, psychology and cognition.  The community will help build bridges between disciplines and act as a hub for collecting and broadcasting BID information, knowledge and expertise in three key areas:

  • motivation to apply BID by demonstrating its value in various contexts
  • development of tools, methods and approaches supporting the effective and efficient use of BID
  • expanded opportunities to apply BID through sharing successes, identifying trends and encouraging collaboration

A substantial amount of material is available to anyone but only registered website users can create and rate content or post comments. 

See Finding Your Way Around the Website and Website Help for information about navigating the website.

Announcing the Thirty-Fourth Issue of Zygote Quarterly (ZQ34)

Welcome to the thirty-fourth issue of Zygote Quarterly.  Articles in the current issue include:

Reader ratings and comments have been on a decline.  Please watch for the thumbs up/thumbs down symbols at the end of each article and let us know what you think.  Comments are particularly welcome!

Thanks to Marjan Eggermont, Zygote Quarterly now includes a searchable/graphical index to all issues.

Please pass this message to others who might be interested, participate in our LinkedIn group , contact us through the link the website footer, and join us on this path of discovery.  We encourage you to subscribe to our mailing list to ensure you receive timely notification of new issues.

Announcing the Thirty-Third Issue of Zygote Quarterly (ZQ33)

Welcome to the thirty-third issue of Zygote Quarterly.  Articles in the current issue include:

Please watch for the thumbs up/thumbs down symbols at the end of each article and let us know what you think.  Comments are particularly welcome!

Thanks to Marjan Eggermont, Zygote Quarterly now includes a searchable/graphical index to all issues.

Please pass this message to others who might be interested, participate in our LinkedIn group , contact us through the link the website footer, and join us on this path of discovery.  We encourage you to subscribe to our mailing list to ensure you receive timely notification of new issues.

Announcing the Thirty-Second Issue of Zygote Quarterly (ZQ32)

Welcome to the thirty-second issue of Zygote Quarterly.  Articles in the current issue include:

Please watch for the thumbs up/thumbs down symbols at the end of each article and let us know what you think.  Comments are particularly welcome!

Thanks to Marjan Eggermont, Zygote Quarterly now includes a searchable/graphical index to all issues.

Please pass this message to others who might be interested, participate in our LinkedIn group , contact us through the link the website footer, and join us on this path of discovery.  We encourage you to subscribe to our mailing list to ensure you receive timely notification of new issues.

Announcing the Thirty-First Issue of Zygote Quarterly (ZQ31)

Welcome to the thirty-first issue of Zygote Quarterly.  Articles in the current issue include:

Please watch for the thumbs up/thumbs down symbols at the end of each article and let us know what you think.  Comments are particularly welcome!

Thanks to Marjan Eggermont, Zygote Quarterly now includes a searchable/graphical index to all issues.

Please pass this message to others who might be interested, participate in our LinkedIn group , contact us through the link the website footer, and join us on this path of discovery.  We encourage you to subscribe to our mailing list to ensure you receive timely notification of new issues.

Announcing the Thirtieth Issue of Zygote Quarterly (ZQ30)

Just in time for Christmas, welcome to the thirtieth issue of Zygote Quarterly.  Articles in the current issue include:

Please watch for the thumbs up/thumbs down symbols at the end of each article and let us know what you think.  Comments are particularly welcome!

Thanks to Marjan Eggermont, Zygote Quarterly now includes a searchable/graphical index to all issues.

Please pass this message to others who might be interested, participate in our LinkedIn group , contact us through the link the website footer, and join us on this path of discovery.  We encourage you to subscribe to our mailing list to ensure you receive timely notification of new issues.

Engineering A Startup #18: Using Nature to Save Nature

What if startup ideas grew on trees, or fell out of the sky? That’s literally the case for Ryan Church, who is a champion of biomimetic innovation, a design philosophy for solving problems by turning to the natural world for inspiration. He happened to be watching falling maple seeds, and ended up solving one of the biggest challenges in wind turbine design.

This podcast covers Church's perspective on biom*, the early days of the PowerCone project (Putting the Nosecone to Work in ​ZQ16​), the challenges of matching an idea with the right applications, building the team with the neccessary skills, identifying key partners, and finding funding.  Church mentioned Antony Upward's Flourishing is the Outcome; Design is the Process and also Stories from the Trenches of Biomimetic Innovation: Ideation and Proof of Concept from ZQ21.

B3D Workshop Initiative

Imagine a world in which scientists, engineers, designers, artisans and organizational specialists could leverage a shared body of knowledge and processes derived from empirical research on natural systems.  In such a future world, designers would not only have access to novel solutions and solution pathways to practical problems, but would also be encouraged to contribute solutions to the far-reaching social, economic and environmental challenges we face.

But how could we create such a world?  What are the key barriers today?  Who needs to be involved?  What are the next steps?  The attached article by the BID Community Think Tank explores the current landscape of design inspired by nature and proposes developing a common ground based on a preliminary set of characteristics.  As the acknowledgements in the article indicate, it has already received broad support from a wide range of reviewers.

The next step is planning one or more workshops to build a consensus and turn the characteristics in a set of actions.  The goal is to collectively learn more (verified information, validated methods, deeper insights) and do more (greater confidence to act, more opportunities to make a difference), increasing the vitality and credibility of our emerging field.  If you want to be part of this journey, please contact us at

b3d [at] sinet [dot] ca

Norbert Hoeller, Ashok Goel, Catalina Freixas, Randall Anway, Antony Upward, Filippo Salustri, Janice McDougall and Kamelia Miteva

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