It is a great honor for me to be awarded the International Bionic Award 2020! I must say that being awarded this prize today strengthens my enthusiasm about bio-inspiration and biomimicry, an endless source of inspiration to solve actual technological challenges.
International Bionic Award
Biomimetics often generate ideas and serve as a stimulus for innovation with sustainable benefits for technology, economy and society. The award is endowed to support research and development oriented towards practical application and innovation by young scientists in the field of biomimetics.
The International Bionic Award will be presented for the eighth time in 2023. It is endorsed with 5.000 € by the Schauenburg-Foundation and will be awarded by VDI – The Association of German Engineers.
New Deadline for Submissions: March 30, 2023
VDI, in collaboration with the Schauenburg Foundation, has extended the submission deadline for the International Bionic Award 2023 due to requests from potential participants. VDI and the Schauenburg Foundation are searching for talents in biomimetics and the new deadline for submissions is March 30, 2023. Don't miss this opportunity to showcase your skills in the field of biomimetics and potentially win this prestigious award.
Application and Conditions for Participation
Application documents
- Abstract (max. 1 page in paper size A4)
- Detailed applications consisting of presentation of work, bachelor/master/doctoral/post doctoral thesis
- Ideas for the implementation and industrial application as well as market potential
The documents mentioned before shall not exceed 20 pages in paper size A4. Additionally, the following proofs are necessary. All documents must be submitted in English.
- Declaration of each team member in order to specify the individual contribution to the project, in case of team applications
- CV/CVs of the author/group of authors including date of birth
Please email these documents in the above order as one single PDF-file to:
- bionik@vdi.de
- Subject line: International Bionic-Award
- Deadline: March 30, 2023
Contact:
VDI-Society Technologies of Life Sciences
P.O.Box 101139
40002 Düsseldorf
Germany
Telephone: +49 211 62 14 445
Conditions for participation
- The prize will be awarded for outstanding contribution by a team of young scientists and researchers or a single young scientist/researcher, for example for the development of a biomimetic product or for a bachelor/master/doctoral/post doctoral thesis.
- International submissions of detailed applications on the subject of biomimetics will be accepted. Copies of already published papers or reviews are not sufficient.
- The work must have been completed within the last two years before the deadline for submission of papers.
- Only direct applications made by a person or a team will be accepted; those made by a third party are excluded.
- Each person may submit one application only, either as author or co-author. Multiple applications will not be accepted.
- The applicant or team members may not be older than 40 years. Applications of undergraduate studies are welcome.
- Legal recourse is excluded.
Jury
- Prof. Dr. Jerôme Casas | Université François-Rabelais Tours, France
- Dr. Rainer Erb | BIOKON e.V., Germany
- Markus Fischer | Ingenieurbüro Markus Fischer, Germany
- Prof. Dr. Robert J. Full | University of California, Berkeley, USA
- Prof. Dr. Michael Herdy | INPRO GmbH, Germany
- Prof. George Jeronimidis | University of Reading, United Kingdom
- Prof. Dr. Antonia Kesel | Bionik-Innovations-Centrum Bremen, Germany
- Dr. Ana Mura | University of Catalonia, Spain
- Marc Georg Schauenburg | Schauenburg-Stiftung, Germany
- Prof. Dr. Thomas Speck | Universität Freiburg, Germany
- Dr. Stéphane Viollet | Aix Marseille University, France
- Dr. Ludwig Vollrath | FISITA, London, United Kingdom
- Prof. Dr. Zhengzhong Shao | Fudan University, China
Sponsor of the Award
The award has been endowed by the Schauenburg-Foundation since 2008. The Schauenburg-Foundation was established in 1986 by Hans-Georg Schauenburg, founder of the Schauenburg Group, which has been in business in the Rhein-Ruhr area for over 60 years. The focus of the Schauenburg-Foundation, which is administered by the independent Stifterverband (Stifterverband is the business community‘s innovation agency for the German science system), reflects the close connection of the International Schauenburg Group to its roots and with scientific and technical innovation.
The foundation mainly endorses academic projects in the area of engineering, economics and social sciences, as well as supporting young people in their vocational training.
Kindly supported by:
Past Awards
Winner of the Bionic Award 2020: Julien Dupeyroux, University of Aix-Marseille
Julien Dupeyroux received the award, endowed with 5,000 Euros, for his outstanding research on an autonomously navigating robot, which he carried out as a PhD research at the University of Aix-Marseille.
The goal of Dupeyroux's research was to build a robot that would mimic the biological functions observed in the behaviour of desert ants. These functions include the acquisition and processing of visual information and a relative navigation based the collated information, also known as path integration.
This idea represents constructive lateral thinking in biomimetics par excellence and therefore, the young scientist convinced the international jury of experts. Second place went to Falk Esser, the third place to Gianni Jacucci.
