Held in Rio de Janeiro, this was Latin America’s first ideathon dedicated exclusively to biomimicry and nature-inspired innovation for sustainable development. It marks the first major milestone for the Nature’s Intelligence Studio, an initiative launched by the TIDE Centre during COP30 in Belém, Brazil, to accelerate nature-inspired innovation. The Studio is built on a simple premise: biodiversity should not only be conserved, but also recognized as one of the world’s greatest sources of innovation for addressing challenges related to energy, industry, and sustainable development.

Over two days at the Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden and Casa FIRJAN, researchers, entrepreneurs, students, and scientists from across the region worked alongside an international group of mentors and experts in biomimicry, biodiversity, innovation, entrepreneurship, investment, and intellectual property, including Annabelle Aish, Chris Thorogood, Hiroshi Wald, Stefan Hobl, Adriana Machado, Sebastián Ceria, Mario Solari, Eliot Graeff, Gabriella Seiler, and Deuza Santos, refining their projects before presenting them to an international jury.

The projects were evaluated by an international jury composed of Amir Lebdioui, Angel Melguizo, Annabelle Aish, Gabriella Seiler, Mariann Sarquis, Cleiton Oliveira, Stefan Hobl, Cecília Guerra, and Deuza Santos, bringing together expertise from the University of Oxford, CAF, leading research institutions, innovation organizations, and industry.

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.

Professor Amir Lebdioui, Director, TIDE Centre, University of Oxford, said: ‘Today marks a milestone for the Nature’s Intelligence Studio and its mission to support innovators in the developing world translate nature’s principles into frontier technological solutions. The Ideathon has emerged with extraordinary bio-inspired innovation ideas in Latin America and the Caribbean, which could become the next big thing if given early-stage support.

Alicia Montalvo, Vice President, Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean (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.’

Following the presentations, the jury gave special recognition to three projects for their scientific excellence, innovation, and potential for impact:

• Bioseed (Colombia), developed by Parsons Kinetics, featuring a low-speed wind turbine inspired by the seeds of the Triplaris americana tree.
• Bioinspired Living Spheres (Argentina), developed by researchers from CONICET and the National University of La Plata, proposing a nature-inspired approach to capturing carbon dioxide using biological systems.
• ManaTex (Peru), developed by Walter Soria Tadeo and Emily Garro Aponte, Chemical Engineering students at the National University of San Marcos and the youngest participants in the Ideathon.

The Nature’s Intelligence Ideathon is one of the three core initiatives of the Nature’s Intelligence Studio, alongside the Energy Atlas of Nature’s Solutions – an AI-powered platform that identifies nature-inspired solutions to energy challenges – and the development of a benefit-sharing legal framework, in partnership with the National Institute of Amazonian Research (INPA), to promote ethical and equitable innovation based on biodiversity.

During the event, the TIDE Centre at the University of Oxford also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Brazil’s Institute for Development and Management (IDG) to strengthen future collaboration on biodiversity, innovation, and sustainable development.

The inaugural Nature’s Intelligence Ideathon marks the beginning of a new regional platform connecting biodiversity, science, entrepreneurship, and sustainable development, positioning Latin America as a global leader in biomimicry and nature-inspired innovation.