TIDE at the Nature4Nature Bioinspiration Summer School in France

On 14 August 2025, TIDE Director Amir Lebdioui taught at the inaugural Nature4Nature Bioinspiration Summer School, held at the Concarneau Marine Station in France. The programme was co-organised by the European Nature4Nature MSCA doctoral programme, Institut de l’Océan (Alliance Sorbonne Université), and the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle.

 

This pioneering two-week summer school gathered biologists, designers, engineers, philosophers, economists, and sustainability experts to foster collaboration across disciplines. TIDE contributed insights on “The Economics of Bio-inspired Innovation & Implications for Policy-Making.” TIDE Director, Amir Lebdioui, highlighted that biomimicry patents have increased twelve-fold in the past two decades, yet developing nations still face critical challenges such as biopiracy, unequal value distribution, and limited R&D capacity. The discussion emphasised that the promise of bio-inspired innovation lies not only in imitating nature, but in building innovation ecosystems that leverage local biodiversity for sustainable development.

 

 

As Lebdioui noted, biodiverse regions such as Africa, Latin America, and South Asia hold the world’s greatest “bank of ideas.” Yet too often, their economic value has been captured elsewhere through extractive models. By rethinking this dynamic, bio-inspired innovation can help shift from resource-intensive growth to symbiotic technologies that work with nature rather than against it.

 

As the 12th-century scientist Ismail Al-Jazarī, after whom TIDE’s annual innovation lecture series is named, once wrote: “Nature guides the craftsman to the finest forms and the most excellent workmanship.”