The biomimicry Institute and the Rocky Mountain Institute have created an early prototype of the Biomimicry Design Portal to create a digital library for biologists and innovators. The final version is scheduled for release in 2008 but until then, the two organizations have made this early prototype available to the public. The groups encourage users to contribute to the system but warn that some features are not yet operational, bugs are still present and data for some topics is not available.
According to the portal's creators, the poral will provide when fully built out:
- Inspiration:
Innovators can browse a catalogue of nature's solutions (organized by
design challenge), publish their own design challenge classification
schemes, and post questions for biologists
- Biology Know-How in Engineering Language: Biologists can share their
knowledge of how life works (How does nature filter? Adhere? Reduce
friction? Dissipate heat? Communicate, etc.) by uploading summary
articles, visuals, End Note bibliographies, comments, etc.
- Open-Source Research: Industry can post design challenges and award "X prizes" for bio-inspired solutions
- Education: Students can take classes online and post their bio-inspired designs
- Collaboration: Innovators and biologists can meet, and bio-inspired breakthroughs can be born.
