BioInspiration

Outcomes

The Hallmark Research Initiative in BioInspiration provided seed funding opportunities for teams of researchers to pursue collaborative, inter-disciplinary projects, and a range of further activities included:

• Supporting visiting academics in areas relevant to the initiative’s research themes
• Development of prototype devices and materials
• Fostering of new cross-disciplinary collaborations, internally and externally, including development of relationships with industry
• Collaborations developed through the Bioinspiration HRI which have led to several successful funding bids
• Guest editing an interdisciplinary Research Topic with the Frontiers Media S.A. publication group, on the theme of ‘Biologically-Informed Approaches to Design Processes and Applications’
• Publication of two articles arising from a multi-disciplinary workshop on Bioinspired Advanced Materials – published in Nature Reviews Materials and Communications Materials.

Supported workshops and seminars, included:

• “Making colours with your five a day” public lecture by Dr Silvia Vignolini, a Reader in Chemistry and Bio-inspired Materials at the University of Cambridge
• Four in-person collaborative workshops
• Webinar conversation series featuring panels of local and international leading researchers
• “Next-generation materials inspired by marine organisms” lecture by Professor Ali Miserez from Nanyang Technological University (NTU) Singapore.

Further funding

The Bioinspiration HRI has led to direct further funding and has also been an important component for several successful funding bids, including:

• Human Frontier Science Program Grant (USD 1.14 million to the team, awarded March 2022) and has led directly to other successful funding bids.
• Centre of Excellence in Transformative Meta-Optical Systems.
• Two successful ARC LIEF bids on Crossing the biology meso-nanoscale divide by scanning electron microscopy and near infrared imaging and a spectroscopy facility.

Context

Bioinspired research is rooted in observations of nature as a source of inspiration. This can be applied to any area of innovation, including the development of new materials, devices, technology, structures and processes.

About Bioninspiration

Bioinspiration involves taking principles from biological systems and applying them to technological and design problems. As global challenges become more complex, we’re increasingly drawing inspiration from biological systems to find new solutions.

The BioInspiration Hallmark Research Initiative exists to enhance innovation and impact by enabling convergence between the biological and physical sciences, engineering and design. This requires collaboration between practitioners in diverse fields including physics, chemistry, materials science, engineering, design, architecture, evolutionary biology and ecology.

The initiative works with a range of research institutes and industry partners to find bioinspired solutions to a broad range of problems in three key research themes:

• Nano-optics and materials
• Chemical sensors
• Design in architecture.