Utrecht, Netherlands
DEGREE TYPE
MSc
DURATION
2 years
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Full time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
Request application deadline
EARLIEST START DATE
Sep 2025
TUITION FEES
EUR 23,765 *
STUDY FORMAT
On-Campus
* Dutch and other EU/EEA students (statutory fee, full-time) 2024-2025: € 2,530
Key Summary
Introduction
What can we learn from blood vessel systems in relation to crowd control and solutions for traffic jams? How do the compound eyes of insects reduce light pollution? How can we create a building functioning like a living organism or ecosystem? How to make the world more circular and sustainable by learning from nature?
Learning from Nature: Where Science Meets Sustainability
This Master's programme is aimed at students with a Bachelor's degree in Biological Sciences, who have a keen interest in combining design, research and systems-thinking. It will equip you with the research, design and collaborative skills that make you a bio-inspired expert. The first year of the programme is research-based, while the second year focuses on the application of knowledge in innovation. You will contribute by using your biological perspective to innovate in the key sectors of nature's principles. As a Bioscience professional, you will advise and inform designers, policy and industry professionals.
Admissions
Curriculum
The curriculum consists of the following six components (with specified credits), covering both practical research training and advanced theoretical education.
- Research project (51 EC)
- Profile (33 EC)
- Compulsory courses (15 EC)
- Elective component (12 EC)
- Writing assignment (7,5 EC)
- Life Science Academy (1,5 EC)
Courses
Compulsory courses
- Bioinspiration & value creation (compulsory)
- Integrative bio-inspired design: the Sys
Electives
Possible electives include, but are not limited to:
- Bio-inspired design challenge
- Plant-microbe interactions
- Applied plant biology
Program Tuition Fee
Career Opportunities
Academic careers
George Whitesides, a biochemist, indicates that bio-inspiration opens up the doors to an academic career across disciplines. This new interdisciplinary field of science is expected to result in breakthrough discoveries that are of use to business and society in the short and long term.
Non-academic careers
Bio-Inspired Innovation trains you to apply and connect bio-inspired research to (non-) governmental organisations and/or businesses. Graduates will be employed by organisations ranging from the WWF to a ministry. Possible jobs include working as a circular economy consultant at Royal Haskoning or as a bio-inspired product developer and designer at Lune.
Why study at Utrecht University
- Follow a unique programme, combining science and inspiration from nature with design and innovation to come up with sustainable and circular products and processes.
- Freedom to design your own programme, research project and electives that best fit your interests. Select one of 9 thematic profiles which are designed to equip you with skills for your future career in a direction that appeals to you most.
- The Master Bio Inspired Innovation is part of the Graduate School of Life Sciences (GSLS). The GSLS brings together the research expertise and facilities of the faculties of Science, Medicine and Veterinary Medicine, in cooperation with UMC Utrecht - offering you an interdisciplinary approach.