Is There a Different Way to Learn?
In a world facing complex environmental and societal challenges, solving problems often requires more than theoretical knowledge. It demands action, creativity, and an ability to see connections across disciplines. UU’s Bio Inspired Design Challenge is an MA course that does exactly that. It teaches students how to take inspiration from nature to design sustainable, innovative solutions while gaining hands-on experience in entrepreneurship and design thinking.
The course brings together students from Utrecht, Wageningen, and Eindhoven universities. While all participants are biologists in training, they approach problems differently. According to Matthijs Roobeek, the course instructor, this diversity is the course’s greatest strength: “Different perspectives lead to better, more creative solutions. Interdisciplinary teamwork teaches students to communicate clearly, integrate skills, and approach problems in a truly systemic way.”
Learning Through Real-World Challenges
Most students enter the course with little to no experience in entrepreneurship. Rather than relying solely on lectures, the Bio Inspired Design Challenge immerses students in experiential learning. They work on real-world problems and develop bio-inspired concepts that could realistically evolve into products or services.
Throughout the course, students receive feedback from experts across multiple fields, including designers, entrepreneurs, material scientists, patent attorneys, Playground coaches, and alumni working in start-ups. They prototype in the lab, conduct stakeholder interviews, and iterate on their ideas. The journey culminates in a juried pitching event, where the winning team receives support to further develop their idea. Matthijs explains: “This structure exposes students to the full innovation process and gives them the confidence to move from ideas to action.”
Carmen, a 2025 participant, described the impact of this approach: “This course really has a way of blowing your mind and making you see things in a different light.” They reflected on how the workshops encouraged creative thinking even for students not used to approaching design from that perspective: “We were given valuable assurances about how really, everyone is creative, even those who don’t consider themselves to be in creative fields, which was very encouraging.”
Entrepreneurial Mindset and Professional Identity
The Bio Inspired Design Challenge goes beyond traditional academic training. “We hope to offer students hands-on innovation experiences that shape their professional identity,” says Matthijs. Students gain a taste of what it could be like to start a company or work in a creative, innovative environment. Most alumni eventually enter consultancy or start-up roles, demonstrating the course’s effectiveness in preparing students for professional life beyond the lab.
Carmen highlighted the course’s focus on stepping back and thinking conceptually: “If you want to rise above making things and really explore the philosophical depths of what it means to make something, this course is for you.” They described learning to distil ideas into their essence: “It’s our place to ideate, brainstorm, imagine and try to condense the essence of our work into something that can be drawn on a post-it note, to eventually capture the essence of the feel of an idea of the vibe of a project.”
Playground had the privilege of hosting the bio-inspired students in our space, providing workshops, and participating as jury members for their pitches. Matthijs adds “Playground provides an open, flexible environment that encourages interaction, brainstorming, and rapid prototyping. Its design thinking workshop helps students, primarily biologists, approach problems from a value-focused perspective, empathising with users, identifying real needs, and designing solutions that create value for people and nature.”
Bio-Inspiration as a Lens for Systemic Solutions
The societal challenges of today demand interdisciplinary approaches and systemic solutions. Bio-inspiration provides the perfect lens, blending biology, design, and entrepreneurship to translate nature’s genius into practical, sustainable innovations. “It shows us how to work with nature, not against it,” says Matthijs. The course’s educational vision is to train students to act as bridges between disciplines, preparing them to be drivers of change in society and innovation ecosystems.
Carmen noted how this perspective shift challenged students to rethink who—and what—they were designing for. Rather than creating solutions purely “for science,” the course emphasised design grounded in real-world contexts, combining user-centred methods with an explicit consideration of natural systems. “We were asked to talk to users, test assumptions, and base design decisions on real needs, while at the same time actively researching how our ideas would interact with natural processes and ecosystems,” she explained. This approach encourages students to translate theoretical knowledge into practical solutions that are not only scientifically sound, but also responsible, integrating human needs with environmental considerations throughout the design process.
From Pitch to Prototype: Insights from the Jury
The culmination of the course is the final pitch event, where students present their ideas to a jury of experts. This year’s panel included UtrechtInc’s Startup Incubation Lead Stefan Braam, Biomimicry NL director, Saskia van den Muisenberg, Assistant Professor and Programme Coordinator, Pauline Krijgsheld, and Playground coach, Stijn Rademaker.
Students showcased rough prototypes developed with support from Lili’s Proto Lab, UU’s high-fidelity prototyping facility for students and researchers, competing for two awards: the Scientific Innovation Prize and the Entrepreneurial Prize.
Feltilizer won the Scientific Innovation Prize for the most innovative product with strong scientific grounding. They designed a denitrification system in the form of a plant pot, which can be placed in agricultural ditches to prevent fertilizer nitrogen runoff from harming surrounding waters and causing algae blooms. A combination of a mycelium-shaped structure and a biofilm filters nitrogen and stores it in the pot. Once full, the pot can be used as a planter with fertilizer made from the recovered nitrogen.
VentiLoaf aims to tackle food waste. Their bio-inspired bread box won the Entrepreneurial Prize for its strong market potential. The design passively regulates airflow to maintain optimal moisture levels. This system is inspired by pine cones, which open and close depending on air humidity. By preventing bread from drying out and becoming stale, the bread box extends its shelf life.
Stijn, who has served on many jury panels, described the submissions as exceptional: “Typically, I see ideas about apps or connecting people, but this was really something different. The quality was amazing, innovative solutions addressing major challenges, emerging from the blend of nature and design. The interdisciplinary approach really made a difference. Many of these ideas have market potential and could even address pressing climate issues.”
Building on the success of these projects, Stijn reflected: “Our role on the jury and at Playground is to help students take the next step—supporting prototype development, financing, market launch, and connecting with research groups. Why stop here when these ideas have so much potential?” A member from the winning teams shared the same enthusiasm, noting: “Next term, I’ll be interning at a lab and hope to continue this too, or pass it on to someone who can invest more time.”
These reflections raise an interesting question: is there space within university curricula to give students the time, structure, and support to continue developing promising ideas? This is a consideration Playground has taken seriously. In response, a pilot internship programme will run between February and July 2026 with four students from the Department of Social and Behavioural Sciences. Within a structured programme, students will be supported to further develop a product or social initiative alongside their studies, while engaging in professional development and critically reflecting on the process as part of their thesis. Through this pilot, Playground aims to learn what such an embedded model can offer—both for students and for the broader innovation ecosystem—and to explore whether a similar internship programme could later be extended to a wider student audience.
A Model for Other Educators
For teachers seeking to bring interdisciplinary, real-world learning into their own courses, the Bio Inspired Design Challenge offers several lessons:
- Encourage diverse perspectives to foster creative problem solving.
- Combine hands-on projects with mentorship from experts across disciplines.
- Provide flexible, collaborative spaces that allow students to experiment and iterate.
- Frame projects around real societal or environmental challenges to give students tangible stakes.
- Integrate design thinking and entrepreneurial mindsets, so students learn to move from ideas to action.