innovation

The state of nature-inspired innovation in the UK

The report is a 138MB epub file.  I am checking with Richard MacCowan on an epub reader that supports the full features of this document - I will add a comment when I hear back.

To harness the enormous potential that lies beneath this highly cross-disciplinary field, Biomimicry Innovation Lab, together with the Nadathur Group, has been conducting a year-long research project that deep dives into the holistic ecosystem of nature-inspired innovation from academic, industry and finance perspectives across the innovation pipelines from the research lab to the market. Through sampling 112,000 data points, establishing a 1500+ researcher network, interviewing 200+ academics and industry practitioners, coupling with advanced data analysis tools such as Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Machine Learning (ML), we’ve laid a solid foundation in understanding different perspectives, the dynamics and key actors in the field within the UK and Northern Ireland. 

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The State of Nature-inspired Innovation in the UK.

The recording and slides of the October 22 presentation by Richard MacCowan, Sriram Nadathur, and Yuning Chenp summarising their research into the ecosystem of nature-inspired innovation based on a "diverse network of over 1500 academics and 100+ research labs in the UK."  The final report will be released shortly.

Biomimicry UK "Behind the Science: YouTube Channel

Starting in November, we will be interviewing innovators, academics and thought leaders behind the research and development of some of the leading innovations in the field.

First up is Prof. Marc Desmuilliez from Heriot-Watt University in Scotland, whose is expertise is in the field of electronics, systems and manufacturing. His work has led to over 400 publications (I know!) and two spinout companies from the university labs.

Tapping into Nature: The Future of Energy, Innovation, and Business

This white paper provides an overview of "bioinspired innovation" (which includes both bioutilization and biomimicry) and explores how it can deliver disruptive innovation that "can increase revenues, reduce costs, and meet global needs" and "also increase their environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) rating".  It includes an infographic organizing an extensive list of innovations by cross-sector topics (carbon, water, materials, energy conversion & storage, optics & photonics, thermo-regulation, fluid dynamics, data & computing, systems), market readiness and affected industries.  The online version is interactive and displays details of each innovation. 

After a report on the potential economic impact of bioinspired innovation prepared by the Fermanian Business & Economic Institute, the white paper explores selected innovations in each of the cross-sector topics mentioned above (online version links back to the infographic) and an extensive list of references.  The PDF includes a table that summarizes the information displayed within the interactive online infographic. 

In addition to exploring the wide range existing breakthrough biologically-inspired products, it also describes the vast, largely untapped market potential of a bioinspired approach to innovation.

Climate-KIC Pioneers into Practice

The Climate-Knowledge & Innovation Community "is Europe’s largest public-private innovation partnership, working together to address the challenge of climate change.  We drive innovation in climate change through creative partnerships large and small, local and global, between the private, public and academic sectors."  Its Pioneers to Practice program is in its fourth year providing two-month placements within the participants' home regions as well as in other European regions.  See Climate-KIC Pioneers into Practice: International workshop 2014 for a five-minute overview.

The Pioneers to Practice program could be an opportunity for B3D projects as well as model for developing a B3D community.

Inventor's Manual (TRIZ)

Direct link: http://triz.guru/index.php?route=product/product&path=63&product_id=61

The book presents up-dated, concise and user-friendly version of TRIZ (Theory of Inventive Problem Solving). It is recommended to those who need "to drive a car", but do not care much or do not have time to know "how does a car work". 

Biomival Project Presentation

Biomival Project: complex solutions through innovative, low-cost methods.

The video clip referenced above (in Spanish with English subtitles available by clicking on the CC button below the progress bar) describes the approach and business model of the Biomival organization located in Valencia.  The clip also mentions the bidirectional turbine (Spanish) inspired by the beak of the flamingo (see AskNature for a brief description in English).

PEGASUS Video Course on TRIZ/BioTRIZ

This video course allows you to transfer ideas from living Nature to engineering using special tools for cross-disciplinary inspirations. It is fun for students and powerful aid for professors who teach innovation and creativity (2 hours 43 min of run time of all seven films of PEGASUS is full of entertaining examples, animations, practical demonstrations, impressive stories and case studies).

Biomimicry: Biology inspires innovation

At this Hot Topics event, our specialist panel - Rob Kesseler, Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design, Alex Parfitt, BAE Systems, Denise DeLuca, Swedish Biomimetics 3000 and panel chair Will Pearson, Director of Technology, Ravensbourne - debated how ideas flow from biology to product design, what tools and institutions enable this process, and how specialists in art, design, architecture, engineering and biology are bought together to solve tomorrow’s problems.

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