Inspiring start: Keynote speech at MatFo2025

“Nature has shown us over 3.8 billion years: the future lies in what is adaptable, grows sustainably and keeps getting better.” This was how BIOKON Managing Director Dr Rainer Erb introduced his keynote speech, which focused on sustainable material innovations thanks to the biologization of technology. He presented successful examples of bioinspired material developments, such as the Salvinia effect for creating an air-holding layer under water, for example on ship hulls or inside pipes, or the sharkskin structure for airplanes - both for reducing friction and thus saving resources. His conclusion: Bioinspired technologies can provide decisive impetus for sustainable material solutions. The BMBF initiative “Biologization of Technology” and its projects therefore have great potential to expand the list of best practices in the future.

Hands-on exhibits: The BdT booth

A highlight at MatFo and MaterialsWeek was the booth of the “Biologization of Technology” funding measure. In addition to informative project overviews, there were concrete exhibits to discover. For example, the ProBand project used demonstrators to show how the complex structure of an intervertebral disc can be used for programmable dampers in automation technology. CarBoMD showed a miniature exhibit of a medical device that is being developed as a bone-cartilage replacement, and SELF-X-FOR-IMPLANTS brought along ceramic implants that are designed to reduce particle abrasion through laser structuring and coating. All exhibits impressively demonstrated how diverse and practical biologization is already being implemented.

Focus on biologization at MaterialsWeek

Six BMBF projects took center stage at MaterialsWeek on 3 April: BioTrans, ProBand, AdapTribo-2, DeDrug-Bio, SELF-X-FOR-IMPLANTS and HEAL-X-Bioink used concrete research results to show how biological principles can be transferred to materials development. The spectrum of possible applications ranged from self-regenerating filter materials for sewage treatment plants to pure, wear-resistant plastic composites and self-healing tissue structures for medicine. The broad spectrum of possible fields of application showed what a boost to innovation the “biologization of technology” can trigger in Germany.

Research in the digital transformation: the BdT PhD seminar

In the afternoon, a doctoral seminar took place that highlighted the role of data management and digitalization. NFDI-MatWerk and the Platform MaterialDigital (PMD) platform provided insights into modern data structures, tools and services for materials science. The focus was not only on efficient research data management, but also on the question of what skills researchers will need in the future to make their research areas fit for digitalization. The young scientists engaged in intensive discussions about the growing importance of digital methods in everyday research.

Bioinspiration as a creativity method: an interactive workshop

The event concluded on 04 April with a workshop in which the participants experienced first-hand how biological knowledge can be systematically used for innovation processes. Together with experts Dr. Rainer Erb (BIOKON e.V.) and Markus Hollermann (Synera GmbH/die bioniker GbR), they analyzed the functions of selected objects, looked for suitable biological role models and derived functional principles from these that can also be found in nature and provide inspiration for further technical developments. Whether adaptability, multifunctionality, resource efficiency or self-healing - nature offers a wide range of solutions that can be transferred to materials research.

Conclusion

MatFo2025 and MaterialsWeek 2025 offered an impressive insight into the fascinating world of bioinspired materials. The BMBF funding measure “Biologization of Technology” made an important contribution with its projects and made it clear that innovations based on the model of nature are not only technically convincing, but also provide answers to social and ecological challenges.

Further information (only in German):

MatFo2025 – Materialinnovationen für die Transformation von Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft