Nature-inspired innovation means learning from and emulating ideas from nature, which is a billion years of R&D ahead of us and has learned to adapt to changing environments.

Professor Amir Lebdioui, Director, TIDE Centre, said: ‘The developing world holds most of the planet’s biodiversity, which is a vast library of biological intelligence built over 3.4 billion years of evolution. Yet, this extraordinary asset remains largely untapped for local development and sustainable innovation.’

The Nature’s Intelligence Studio will translate nature’s principles into practical solutions through the three initial projects:

• The Energy Atlas of Nature’s Innovations, developed in collaboration with Asteria, an AI-powered start-up with a platform leveraging over 4 million scientific articles connected to biomimicry, that connects specific industrial energy challenges to biological models;
• An Ideathon in collaboration with the Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean to support pilot innovations that demonstrate performance in the field and generate a new wave of bio-inspired prototypes from the global south;
• A benefit-sharing legal framework so communities whose biodiversity underpins discovery share in the value. 

The goal is clear: align conservation and industrial decarbonisation so the standing forest becomes an engine of innovation.

The programme is featured in the COP30 action agenda and has been endorsed by Ambassador André Corrêa do Lago, President of COP30, as an example of how science and innovation can link conservation with sustainable development in the Amazon: ‘In the heart of the Amazon, COP30 reminds us that nature holds the key to innovation — and the Nature’s Intelligence Studio embodies this new approach: protecting nature while learning from its intelligence.’

Backed by close to £1 million from Oxford, philanthropic foundations, and the Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean (CAF), the Studio will initially operate between Oxford and Belém, before expanding to other high-biodiversity regions. 

Alicia Montalvo, Manager of Climate Action and Positive Biodiversity, CAF, said: ‘At CAF, we believe that Latin America and the Caribbean’s extraordinary biodiversity holds the key to a new model of development, one that is both innovative and inclusive. Our collaboration with Oxford through the Nature’s Intelligence Studio embodies this vision: connecting science, policy, and entrepreneurship to turn bio-inspired ideas into real solutions for the planet.’

Nature-inspired innovation (also referred to as biomimicry, biomimetics, or biodesign) examines how organisms solve functional problems and applies those principles to human design. It does not involve the use of living organisms; rather, it studies mechanisms - such as bioluminescence in fireflies or aerodynamic tubercles on whale fins - and recreates them through engineering. 

This approach is directly relevant to climate and energy: it can replace energy-intensive processes with more efficient, circular alternatives and create new economic incentives for conservation in regions that are critical carbon sinks.

Deuza Santos, Intellectual Property and Entrepreneurship Manager, National Institute of Amazonian Research (INPA), said: ‘The launch of Nature’s Intelligence Studio during COP30 in Belém represents a strategic milestone in repositioning the Amazon on the global stage. This initiative reframes the rainforest not merely as a biome to be preserved, but as a living repository of intelligence and a bank of solutions for contemporary industrial and environmental challenges. 

‘The Studio will act as a bridge, connecting the vast biological knowledge catalogued by regional science with the innovation expertise and development policies of its international partners.’

First published on the University of Oxford website. For more information about this story or republishing this content, please contact news.office@admin.ox.ac.uk