As R&D budgets face increasing pressure, smart companies can turn to nature’s time-tested solutions for breakthrough innovation. Our analysis of 430 bioinspired innovations reveals three strategic principles: leverage nature’s inherent efficiency and resilience, develop systematic approaches to identify relevant biological models, and adapt, rather than replicate, natural mechanisms for commercial applications.

In today’s cost-conscious economy, R&D budgets are under pressure. Companies need low-cost, high-impact and sustainable innovation models. Bioinspired innovation delivers exactly that. After all, nature is the world’s most efficient R&D lab. Consider how 3M’s successful dental composite came about.

Until the late 1990s, dental science had yet to find a material that could match the esthetics of natural teeth while being sufficiently durable for long-term repair. At 3M’s Oral Care Division, Dr. Sumita Mitra led a team through years of trials. The team’s recent efforts, using a tight conglomeration of nanoparticles about 20 nanometers in diameter, had looked promising at first, but in rigorous lab trials, they fell short.

The breakthrough came in an unexpected moment. As Mitra sat in her kitchen preparing to paint a watercolor of grapes, she plucked one from the cluster (Figure 1). Despite the void left by the missing grape, the cluster’s overall size and shape remained unchanged. That kind of thing had never happened with the aggregations of nanoparticles used in her research. Mitra immediately knew why. The variation in grape sizes meant smaller spheres immediately filled voids left by larger ones, maintaining maximum density.

“My theory” Mitra explained to us, “was that we could first assemble the nanoparticles into nanoclusters of wide size distribution and then combine them with individual nanomeric particles to fill any voids, providing a synergistic mix that could then be incorporated in a dental resin to create the nanocomposite. The material would be versatile enough to be used in all regions of the mouth and have lasting beauty and longevity. This is what I set out to do, with the help of the excellent team at 3M.”

Mitra’s theory held, and so did the composite that her team created. The final product, known as 3M Filtek™ Supreme, was stronger and more easily polished. It has since been used in over a billion tooth restorations and earned Mitra induction into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

Sumita Mitra’s revelation is a classic example of bioinspired innovation, a process that starts with an observation of a natural phenomenon and translates that knowledge to a solution to a real-world problem. Bioinspiration can lead us not just to new and better products, but also to new processes, structures, and business models.¹ These proven concepts have delivered measurable results across diverse industries and company sizes.

We studied 430 bioinspired innovations across diverse sectors such as automotive, architecture, materials science, consumer electronics, apparel, healthcare, and food, ranging from iconic designs to more contemporary creations. Our analysis reveals three actionable principles that companies can systematically apply to identify and develop nature-inspired solutions.

Nature doesn’t hide its answers to our problems, but it doesn’t have a marketing department either. Its solutions are available, and they are free, for organizations that know how to look for them.

Key Principles for Bioinspired Innovation

With over nine million known species on Earth, each adapted to its environment over eons, nature presents a comprehensive encyclopedia of solutions. Yet most organizations have barely scratched the surface of what can be learned from nature’s models. We have identified three principles, explained in detail below, that can help business leaders understand the why (i.e., the potential) of bioinspired innovation, as well as how to put it to work in their organizations. The principles correspond to three common myths about bioinspired innovation that limit its broad application (Table 1).

Table 1: Three Principles of Bioinspired Inspiration

Principle One: Nature’s Attributes Can Inspire Solutions to a Wide Range of Challenges

Nature has several unique and useful attributes: it wastes nothing; it is resilient; it is self-sustaining; and it has inherent beauty. Nature can inspire innovations in practically everything from products and processes to platforms and business models, and even the ways that organizations are structured. Let’s look at some of the things that natural models can help us accomplish.

Maximize Efficiency

By mirroring nature’s efficiencies, businesses can minimize waste, increase customer satisfaction, and boost profits. Ant colonies are models of efficiency. When ants search for food, they leave a chemical trail to let others know the optimal route to the essential resource. Today, ant-inspired optimization models are inspiring ways to reduce traffic congestion and improve business productivity. Logidot, a startup from Imperial College London, builds smart tracking systems that create digital twins of warehouses to optimize operations. Inspired by how ants work together, they teamed up with University of Bath researchers to develop an IoT system that helps warehouses stay efficient and resilient during disruptions.²

Build Strength and Resiliency

In nature, resilience is a survival imperative. Organisms and ecosystems must adapt to changing environments, and that ability to adapt offers blueprints for human-made systems that can better withstand stress and recover from disruption. Mangroves are nature’s guardians for coastal areas. Their dense root systems act as natural wave barriers, preventing erosion and protecting coastlines. Inspired by these natural defenders, University of Kansas School of Architecture and Design Professor Keith Van de Riet and his team of ecologists, biologists, and engineers have developed artificial barriers that imitate the dense, complex networks of mangrove roots to break up wave energy and protect shorelines from rising sea levels and severe weather.³

Promote Eco-friendliness

Nature’s self-sustaining property is a powerhouse of inspiration for sustainable innovations. Algae is a renewable resource that grows much faster than land-based plants and produces compounds like oils and proteins that can be transformed into eco-friendly materials. Blueview, a footwear company led by Stephen Mayfield, Professor of Biology at UC San Diego, used algae-based polymers to develop shoes that fully biodegrade, and consequently have a lesser environmental impact than traditional footwear, which often contains plastics and synthetic materials that remain in landfills for decades.

Architect Multi-purpose Platforms

Nature-inspired solutions can create platforms that lead to new families of products. In 1987, when skipper Dennis Conner and his racing team reclaimed the America’s Cup with the yacht Stars and Stripes 87, their secret sauce was a drag-reduction technique called “riblets.” Inspired by the skin of sharks, which has microscopic, V-shaped grooves that minimize drag, NASA’s Langley Research Center developed riblets, and 3M produced them on thin vinyl films. When they were applied to the hull of Stars and Stripes, the tiny ridges reduced surface friction and gave the boat a speed advantage in the final rounds. 3M has since developed technologies that create surface features like sharkskin riblets on several different materials. Their “microreplication” technology platform enables the fabrication of a wide range of products, from abrasives to adhesives.

Design New Organizational Models

In nature, decentralized, self-sustaining systems flourish without top-down control, offering an atypical model for the design of an enterprise. At the Haier Group, Chairman Zhang Ruimin put this model to work by shifting from a rigid, industrial-era hierarchy to an adaptive, rainforest-inspired organizational model, one where, as Zhang says, every day some organisms are born and some die, yet the ecosystem endures. Zhang redesigned the organization around three key bio-inspired principles: self-creation, emergent self-organization, and perpetual evolution. As our colleague Jeffrey Kuhn, who conducted a year-long study on Haier observed, “Zhang drew inspiration from the self-sustaining, interconnected ecosystems found in nature, such as rainforests, and reimagined Haier as a dynamic network of over 4,000 autonomous micro-enterprises. These units operate independently, fostering self-propagation and renewal without centralized control.”

Principle Two: Inspiration from Nature Can Be Rendered Systematic with Intention

Bioinspiration can sometimes be serendipitous, such as the famous story of burdock seeds clinging to the clothes of Swiss engineer George de Mestral during a walk in the Jura Mountains that inspired him to develop hook-and-loop fasteners that he named “Velcro.” While chance inspiration like de Mestral’s is always welcome, it’s not the kind of problem-solving methodology that an enterprise can count on. More circumspect organizations can tap nature’s insights in some very deliberate ways: they can study model organisms, narrow the focus to specific organisms, extract generic principles that can be applied to solutions across multiple industries, and leverage the power of Gen AI, as we explain below.

Study Model Organisms

In many cases, the search for solutions can be aimed directly at specific organisms. Traditional car batteries are bulky, rigid, and wholly unsuitable for wearable tech, which requires power sources that are flexible and stretchable, enabling continuous monitoring on soft, moving skin. The sources must also be ultra-lightweight, highly efficient and of course, provide reliable energy.

To find a solution that meets those requirements, University of Cambridge Professors Oren Scherman and George Malliaras studied electric eels which generate electricity even with their flexible bodies. In fact, the electric eel has been studied for centuries by scientists interested in electrical phenomenon, starting with Alessandro Volta, who invented the first electric battery in 1800. Electric eels generate electricity to stun prey and deter threats, using specialized cells called electrocytes, which pump ions across membranes and unleash rapid bursts of power.

The Cambridge researchers developed “jelly batteries” made from hydrogels. Instead of depending on rigid electrodes and electrons, these batteries mirror the eel’s natural processes and use ions to conduct electricity. The layered structure of the hydrogel, held together by reversible molecular “handcuffs” allows the batteries to stretch to over ten times their original length without losing conductivity.⁴ By modifying the salt content and charge in each gel layer, the researchers can tailor the energy output to support a wide range of applications, from wearable devices to brain implants.

UC Berkeley’s Robert Full has shown how studying animal locomotion can unlock robust design strategies for companies. His research on geckos inspired dry adhesives that grip without leaving residue, and his work on lizard tails led to tail-assisted robots that stay stable during motion. These insights have influenced firms like Boston Dynamics and startups building agile, energy-efficient machines.

Narrow the Focus to Specific Organisms

Autonomous underwater vehicles often need to be anchored, but most anchoring systems require more energy than can be provided by the vehicles’ limited battery power without reducing their operating time. To solve this problem, MIT Professors Anette Hosoi and Amos Winter explored natural models. The first stage of the research, explained Winter (to the authors in an interview), “looked at all the marine organisms that dig into the ocean bottom, including various species of clams, worms, and some crustaceans.”

The razor clam stood out, earning the title “Ferrari of underwater diggers.” Razor clams, which live in many types of granular underwater substrates, dig at remarkable speeds, about a centimeter per second. Unlike other clams that simply close when threatened, razor clams flee, straight downward, digging as far as half a kilometer with the energy of a single AA battery. They do this by retracting their shell, which relieves stress between their body and the soil, causing a small, localized landslide. Winter and Hosoi’s robot RoboClam, inspired by razor clams, doesn’t look much like its biological counterpart, but it burrows just as efficiently using minimal energy, and it provides a low-cost solution for anchoring underwater submersibles and securing ocean-floor cables.⁵

Systematically Unlock Nature’s Inspiration with Gen AI

By tapping into nature’s R&D, Gen AI can uncover unseen connections between biological strategies and today’s toughest commercial challenges. It can scan millions of biological structures to find the perfect blueprint for a lightweight yet durable auto part or reveal whitespace opportunities for ultra-efficient water strategies.

To test its potential, we built a Custom GPT (accessible at https://bit.ly/bioinnchat) trained on our database of 430 bioinspired innovations and asked 21 executives from business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) companies to put it to the test. Their task: pose any real-world innovation problem. The GPT responded with a relevant organism and five tailored bioinspired ideas. Users could then explore execution strategies for the specific ideas. The executives’ verdict? An impressive 6.1 out of 7 usefulness rating. They praised the tool’s speed, structure, idea diversity and ability to sharpen their thinking. Our experiment is proof that Gen AI can be a high-impact business tool. But our tool has just scratched the surface. Gen AI can be more than an idea generator. It can guide every stage of the innovation journey, from ideation to validation, cutting development time and slashing R&D risk.

Principle Three: Nature Inspires, but Innovation Takes Its Own Course

The logic of bioinspired innovation often begins with a simple question: if a solution works in nature, why not just replicate it? In theory, this line of thinking makes sense, but in the real world, replication is outranked by adaption. For reasons that quickly become apparent to most inventors, bioinspired innovations rarely resemble the natural systems that inspire them. Instead of trying in vain to copy nature, bio-innovators should consider the following strategies.

Use Nature for Starting Points

Nature offers starting points, not finished solutions. The journey from inspiration to innovation inevitably requires major changes, driven by factors such as design trade-offs, customer needs, and technical constraints. Consider the thought processes of the pioneers of aviation. The Wright brothers were avid observers of birds, and they derived many ideas by studying the fine movements of birds in flight, but like nearly all bio-innovators, the Wright brothers did not simply mimic what they observed. One of their key insights came from observing how birds twist their wings to maintain balance and control. Instead of attempting to copy this motion, the brothers developed a mechanism that allowed pilots to control roll by adjusting the shape of the wings, an innovation that laid the foundation for modern ailerons.

Even today, birds continue to inspire aircraft innovations. In 2024, researchers at Princeton University found that covert feathers, the small, flexible feathers on birds’ wings, deploy dynamically during aerial maneuvers to optimize airflow and prevent loss of lift.⁶ By borrowing this natural feature, engineers have developed covert-inspired flaps for aircraft wings, which automatically respond to changes in airflow without requiring additional power or control mechanisms. The flaps help planes avoid stalls and make it easier to regain control if a stall does occur.

Draw from Multiple Sources of Inspiration

Instead of modeling the attributes of a single organism, bioinspired innovation often draws from multiple sources to solve complex multi-faceted design challenges. The final products, therefore, are often radically different from the original inspirations. Harvard and MIT researchers have created a shoe grip design that helps prevent falls and is aimed at seniors who are particularly vulnerable to slipping on icy or wet surfaces. Falls like this cost the U.S. billions of dollars in medical expenses each year.⁷

Their idea is a hybridization of elements of movement of snakes and cheetahs. Snake’s scales act like tiny grips, providing traction that enables the reptiles to move effectively across different surfaces. Cheetahs, on the other hand, get their extraordinary high-speed grip from claws. Replicating these natural features, they created a grip system that can increase or decrease friction between the shoe and the ground. During forward movement, the patterns change, and spikes emerge to enhance grip. As weight shifts backward, the spikes retract, creating a smooth, unobtrusive surface. The soles outperform traditional crampons on icy surfaces and are far easier to put on and remove. They are also lightweight, and unlike many anti-slip shoes, they are stylish.

MAKING NATURE A TEAM MEMBER

The idea of nature as an enterprise stakeholder is often discussed from a governance standpoint, where it is seen primarily as a means to more sustainable business practices. We offer a different suggestion: leaders should think of nature as a member of innovation teams. Ideation is often a combinatorial process, and welcoming nature as a team member can add a new and much experienced vector to the mix.

Ray Anderson, founder and former CEO of Interface, a maker of industrial carpets, liked to envision his company’s workspace as “factory as a forest,” and so it was unsurprising that he challenged his team to ask: “How would nature design carpets?” Anderson created teams made up of biologists, ecologists, designers, and engineers, and partnered with Janine Benyus, co-founder of Biomimicry 3.8 and the Biomimicry Institute.

The results were transformative. One team that ventured into the woods to study natural flooring patterns came up with a carpet design inspired by the ways that leaves randomly cover a forest floor. Interface then developed carpet tiles with unique patterns within a unified color palette, allowing for seemingly random installation with a design that was both chaotic and visually pleasing. The intentional tile variations relieved consumers of the need to purchase large quantities of “attic stock” to ensure matching replacement tiles. The non-directional design reduced installation waste by 89%. Thanks in part to such bioinspired designs, Interface has emerged as the global leader in industrial carpets. Nathan Havey, creator of the documentary Beyond Zero on Interface’s multi-decades journey, told us: “Ray Anderson became a trail-blazing CEO by engaging all of the company’s stakeholders effectively to transform Interface through nature-inspired innovation.”

In an era defined by economic uncertainty, sustainability imperatives, and exponential technological change, bioinspired innovation offers a path to transformative solutions that are both elegant and enduring. The organizations that will thrive in the coming decades will be those that develop systematic capabilities to translate biological insights into competitive advantages and include nature as a member of their innovation teams.

References

1. Margo Farnsworth, Biomimicry and Business: How Companies Are Using Nature’s Strategies to Succeed (London: Routledge, 2020).
2. David Silverman, “Tech Inspired by Ant Colonies Could Keep Goods Moving during Supply Chain Shocks,” Imperial News, December 16, 2021.
3. Jeffrey E. Huber et al., “Salty Urbanism: Towards an Adaptive Coastal Design Framework to Address Sea Level Rise,” The Plan Journal 2, no. 2 (2017): 389–414.
4. Thomas B. H. Schroeder et al., “An Electric-Eel-Inspired Soft Power Source from Stacked Hydrogels,” Nature 552, no. 7684 (December 13, 2017): 214–18.
5. Amos G. Winter et al., “Teaching RoboClam to Dig: The Design, Testing, and Genetic Algorithm Optimization of a Biomimetic Robot,” in 2010 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IEEE, 2010), 4231–35.
6. Alaina O’Regan, “Bird Wings Inspire New Approach to Flight Safety,” Princeton Engineering (blog), October 28, 2024.
7. Alex Fox, “New No-Slip Sole Takes Inspiration from the Japanese Art of Kirigami,” Smithsonian Magazine, June 3, 2020.