Bioinspired

Circular
Innovation

Learn to Learn from Nature.

At t h e F i r s t B i o i n s p i r e d C i r c u l a r
Innovation Programme 2019.
Berlin | 2019
www.BiomimicryAcademy.com
contact@BiomimicryAcademy.de

V 1.3 – 2019-02-11

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 Welcome to a
Community of
Change Makers!

Introduction | Background | Case Studies

Trainings Programmes | Practicalities

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We live in times of exponential changes through technology, globalisation
and connectivity. They provide both, vast chances and challenges. To
master them, we need a new way to innovate, to reinvent ourselves and
the way we learn, live and work. To take this way, we should consider
everything around us as a teacher. And when it comes to creative prob-
lem solving, iterative innovation, sustainable growth, and cooperation on
a systemic scale, there is no better teacher than nature.

Through 3.8 bio years of evolution, life has found a way to solve nearly
any challenge we face. There is a framework and methodology to learn
from nature and weigh our solutions against time-proven principles.

It is known as “emulating life”, or BIOMIMICRY.

At Biomimicry Academy you learn how to learn from nature. And how to
apply these learnings in the context of product or service development,
business or social entrepreneurship, organisational or personal change.
Through 5 modules and an additional hands-on training over a period of
7-12 months you will be trained by some of Europe's leading experts in
Bioinspired Circular Innovation (BCI), from Bionics through Biomimicry to
Circular Economy. BCI is both,
scientific AND practical;
creative AND directly applicable;
business-centred AND responsible.

From the unique Bioinspired Circular Innovation programme, you will

graduate as a Biomimicry Practitioner into a global community of change
makers; and become ready to thrive and evolve in an ever-changing
environment. Biomimicry Academy will not only change your perspective on
business and career, it will change your life.

Learn to learn from nature now.

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 „ Humans are the only species in the
world that knows waste and unemployment.
Let's change that by learning from the
millions of species around us.
Dr. Arndt Pechstein
President of Biomimicry Germany e.V.

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 Bioinspiration | Biomimicry | Bionics
With entire industries witnessing disruptive changes on global markets,
dramatic paradigm shifts in user behavior, and anthropogenic changes
happening world-wide a new thinking and the adoption and implement-
tation of new technologies and best practices are imperative.
Accordingly, sustainable, systemic solutions gain increasing importance
and doers from all disciplines look into the biological design principles to
solve human problems.
While biomimicry, like academy bionics, draws inspiration from nature, it
goes beyond mere extraction of knowledge. Sustainability is one of the
declared goals of the method, a necessity that cannot be ignored any
longer in society or economy. Natrual systems are inherently robust,
resilient, and in a dynamic equilibrium, optimized by evolutionary
mechanisms. Humanity is part of these systems and lives under the same
constraints of planet earth; neglect of this fact, especially in the 20th
century, led to the severe challenges we face today. Biomimicry comes with
a process to use nature‘s strategies to design human solutions and test
them against a checklist of values and principles.

Humanity
is a part
of nature

Take Nature Value

as a model for diversity as the
sustainable driving force
future-proof of life and
systems innovations

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 Circular Innovation | Human-centred
design | Business Modelling
Circularity is one of the core concepts of natural systems. Circular Economy,
Circular Design or Cradle-to-Cradle® encompass this prerequisite. Integra-
ting the Biomimicry process and audit tools into those frameworks yields a
powerful solution-oriented design methodology.
While this process takes into account natural and systemic cources and
requirements, there are two additonal sides needed to make viable products
and services: Human-centred design and business modelling. Human-centred
design uses need-oriented development and market-driven innovation. It can
be used for product or service design, social innovation or systems enginee-
ring. Agile design methods are as much part of this toolbox as lean business
concepts. To bring an idea to market or to make a social innovation into a
sustainable reality, methods from business modelling and practices from
communcation to storytelling are necessary.
The resulting mixed method approach is called Bioinspired Circular
Innovation.

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Our Case Studies

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Case Study 1 | Form

Airbus Cabin Structures Designed by Fungi

Lightweight structures do not

necessarily follow obvious
mathematical algorithms.
Engineers at Airbus show that
sometimes the experimental
growth of fungi indicate the
path towards the optimal
solution.

In 2016, Biomimicry Germany e.V.

hosted 2nd NATURE, the first
German Symposium for Bioinspi-
ration and Biomimicry, together
with CLB Berlin and Museum für
Naturkunde Berlin.
Among the speakers was Bastian Schäfer, Innovation Manager
at Airbus Operations GmbH. He impressively showcased how his
team used slime molds on petri dishes seeded with nutrient
sorces to find the optimal connection between given points on a
surface. When feeding the solutions of hundreds of slime mold
growth experiments into a learning computer system, it
produced an algorithm to design a structurally crucial wall
inside the airplane cabin that was lighter, sturdier and more
advanced than any predictive algorithm had created before.

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Case
CaseStudy
Study2 1
| Function
Urban Mobility Reloaded: Function over Convention
Aibus Cabin Structures Designed by Fungi
“One of three runners-up in the 2014 Audi Urban Future Award,
(…) proposed a futuristic and innovative concept for an entirely
new type of personal transport. Drawing inspiration from
sources as diverse as elevator technology and biomimicry, their
designs offer a thought-provoking alternative to our existing
transportation systems that could revolutionize the city as we
know it.”
from Arch Daily, 2. 1. 2015

In neurons, molecular cargo is transported along cellular highways.

By decoupling the power engine from the carrier vesicles, fast
combinations and alterations in speed and direction are possible. If
these transport concepts are combined with a virus-inspired
coupling system, and integrated into the existing urban
infrastructure of public transport in Berlin, the result is a systemically
adjusted mobility concept of the future. Companies like Alphabet in
the USA or NEXT Future Transportation in Dubai bring such concepts
alive.

For more information visit

www.biomimicry.org/urban-mobility-reloaded-planning-future-cities

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 Case Study 3 | System
Organic Organisations: Multi-layer Business Ecosystem

phi360 is a network organisation dedicated to make responsible

business economically viable. For this, the team around Dr. Arndt
Pechstein and Dr. Fabian Feutlinske desgined the agency as an
living organisation devoid of established hierarchies and revenue-
driven KPIs.

phi360 developed and employs Hybrid Thinking, a radical approach

that combines inspiration sources like Biomimicry with personal self-
relflection and development, group-based co-creation and
systemic integration to drive responsible innovation in product,
service and systems design.

Their concept was inspired by their background in cellular neuro-

biology, bioinformatics, the behaviour of human and non-human
social groups, and synergetic ecosystem from the kingdom of
plants and fungi.

The Hybrid Thinking methodology liases Biomimiry The universal matrix for any organism or
with human-centred business concepts organisation

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Bioinspired
Circular
Innovation
P r o f e s s i o n a l Tr a i n i n g P r o g r a m m e 2 0 1 9

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Bioinspired Circular Innovation 2019

Graduate in 3 steps according to your

personal goals:

BCI Bioinspired Circular Innovator

(BCI):
 5 online courses with lectures, practices and
quizzes (50 learning hours total)
 First month online module followed by 4
modules including face-to-face sessions (9
months total, 10 days on site)
 1 training project and 1 application project on
business challenges (50 + 120 hours of self-
organised work, individual or in groups)
 Hosted in the startup hub Berlin including
outdoor and research sessions, and hands-
on practice
 Modern learning environment and digital
tools, everything in English
 Inputs by experts from the life sciences,
Research & Delevopment, entrepreneurs
and international biomimics
 Europenised curriculum developed in tight
collaboration with the Circular Economy
community and Natural History Museum
Berlin

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Bioinspired Circular Innovation 2019

BP Biomimicry Practitioner:
 After finishing the BCI training you continue to become
a Biomimicry Practitioner
 Training integrates with the annual Biomimicry Global
Design Challenge and the Biomimicry Institute Business
Accelerator Programme
 Develop a biomimetic product or service from idea to
market mentored by a coach
 Grow your understanding through a guided reflection
about process and methodology, and your practical
skills through iSites
 Digitally mentored individual work (workload depends
on the participant over the course of 2-6 months)

BC Biomimicry Coach:
 Biomimicry Practitioners can continue their education
with a special coaching training
 Coaching involves communication, presentation,
didactic and social skils and respective proven methods
 Coaches are trained in methods, through co-coaching
in a relevant context, and mentoring the next
Biomimicry Practitioners (18 coaching days + individually
assigned online mentoring)

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 Here is your
journey...
9 months
4 modules with
face-to-face
2 3 sessions

1 4
Bioinspired
Online Circular
Innovator
Biomimicry Project 5
Reflection + 2-6 months
iSites
BCI Presentation
Biomimicry & BCI badge
Practitioner
Certification

BP + 8 months
Biomimicry
Coaching
Biomimicry Education
Coach
BC
Certification

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 We are working with a global team of Biomimicry experts
to bring you the best training possible.
Below you find the curriculum for the Bioinspired Circular
Innovator and the Biomimicry Practitioner:

Module 1: Online Introduction

Bioinspired Circular Innovation Education Programme

July + August 2019

Self-paced online studies | Introduction into

innovation methodologies, human-centred
innovation, nature-inspired innovation and circular
economy | Literature suggestions | Introduction to
the community, cource structure and digital tools

Online seminar + 10-20 hours self-paced learning

Module 2: Experience & Connect

9 + 10 September 2019

Connect to Nature | iSites | Frameworks for

Biomimicry, C2C®, Biophilia and Design Thinking |
Biomimicry and Systems Thinking process | Life‘s
Principles | Startup Input | Scoping for Project I |
Personal Reflection| Assignments between Modules

2 day session in Berlin, 10-20 hours self-paced

learning + 10 hours project assignment

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Module 3: Learn & Practice

Bioinspired Circular Innovation Education Programme

18 - 20 November 2019

Biomimicry expert input | Biomimicry Design process for

Project I | Biomimicry Case Studies | iSites | Function
Cards & Prototypes | „Teeming“ for Project II | Scoping
for Project II (group challenge) | Assignments between
Modules

3 day session in Berlin, 10-20 hours self-paced

learning + 10 hours project assignment

Module 4: Translate & Apply

January 2020 (tbd)

Project partner input for Project II | Biomimicry

Design process for Project II: Scoping Review –
Discovery phase with biologist – Creation –
Evaluation | Business keynote | Assignments
between Modules

3 day session in Berlin, 10-20 hours self-paced

learning + 10 hours project assignment
 Module 5: Implement & Communicate
Bioinspired Circular Innovation

March 2020 (tbd)

Education Programme

Biomimicry Business Modell Canvas | Communication

& Scaling | Business keynote | Project partner
presentations at Biomimicry symposium | BCI
Graduation celebration

2 day session in Berlin ending with an open

presentation and BCI graduation, con-
clusion of the online course earns
the Superbadge to be included in your
online profile
BCI

Biomimicry Project
from March 2020
Practitioner
Biomimicry

Self-paced online studies | individual Biomimicry

project (Project III) | Reflection journal | iSites |
Online mentoring | Introduction to the Biomimicry
Institute Business Accelerator Programme

Online mentoring + self-paced

project work
BP

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A 3-step process to match your
personal goals

Pay as you go or book one

BC
of these options:
Biomimicry
BP Coach
Certificate of
Biomimicry Expertise
Practitioner
BCI Certificate of
Expertise

Bioinspired + 2599 €
Circular
Innovator
+ 1299 €** For
professional
Superbadge & -20% coaches
Certificate of
with BCI*
Completion

Best value
4x 1749€ ** for money

5999 €*
Best for
beginners ** pay as you go
* paid in advance
All prices plus 19% VAT

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 A word at the end...

We are always happy to spark interest in our

living world, in its human and non-human
beauties and challenges. There need to be
more, many more people who value nature
for its incredible ability to be resilient and
thriving under adverse, changing conditions
and accept that we have to learn to live,
build, produce and consume the same way.
With this document, you took the first step of
becoming one of them.

Director of Biomimicry Academy

Biomimicry Academy is a joint venture of Information, data and statements are

Biomimicry Germany e.V. and phi360. used with permission from Biomimicry 3.8,
Biomimicry Institute, Biomimicry Germany
Biomimicry Academy e.V., phi360, ArchDaily, Airbus
c/o Phi Group This paper uses grafics and material
Dr. Fabian Feutlinske from the following sources: Biomimicry
Geibelstr. 54 Germany e.V., CC-BY-SA; Maxpixel under
12305 Berlin Public Domain rights; Pexels under Public
Domain rights; Wendy Wei, Naturkunde-
museum Berlin.

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 contact us

contact@biomimicryacademy.com

www.biomimicryacademy.com