BIOMIMICRY FELLOWS AND THE BIOMIMICIRY RESEARCH AND INNOVATION CENTER Great Lakes Biomimicry (GLBio) and The University of Akron (UA) offer the only PhD training in Biomimicry available in the world. Our vision is to combine designers, entrepreneurs, scientists, engineers and artists to be trained in the field of biomimicry. By integrating across these domains and engaging business, academic and public sector partners, we create innovation leaders, who not only understand the technical details of biomimicry but also have the experience and skills to bring about real change, both in how products and services are designed and manufactured as well as in the development of biomimicry into a true discipline for STEM education. GLBio, UA and 3.8 have unique intellectual resources in bio‐related and advanced materials research and engineering, which, when informed by principles of sustainability and bioinspiration, create a new kind of PhD. External corporate organizations and educational institutions can invest in advanced biomimicry training, research and education by sponsoring PhD students through Biomimicry Fellowships. Biomimicry Fellows are full‐time PhD students enrolled in UA’s biomimicry training, supported to advance sponsor‐oriented research innovation challenges, or biomimicry curriculum development for STEM programs, as core elements of their PhD research. Over each PhD fellow’s five‐year program, corporate funded fellows will spend 16‐20 hours per week in the sponsor’s R&D labs, while foundation funded fellows will spend 16‐20 hours per week working with teacher professional development and curriculum enhancement. The return on investment for the sponsor comes in one or more of three forms: 1) immediate and continuous integration of biomimicry innovation process, skills, culture and learning into their R&D infrastructure or PK‐12 educational system; 2) advanced training of a biomimicry professional ready to assume a leadership role; or, 3) deployment of biomimetic curriculum and pedagogy, and related teacher development, into K‐12 school systems. Biomimicry Fellows are trained in interdisciplinary cohorts representing the core disciplines of Biology, Design, Engineering and Business, using the Integrated Bioscience (IB) PhD program platform at UA. A key feature of this program is that it draws on the strengths of research infrastructure spanning the Colleges of Arts & Sciences, Engineering, Polymer Science and Engineering, and Business. Currently, there are 45 PhD students enrolled and nearly 70 participating faculty in IB, working on projects ranging from modeling the biotic effects of global climate change to studying how geckos can teach us to make reusable synthetic adhesives without glue. Biomimicry Fellows have the opportunity to draw from at least two‐dozen different labs engaged in biomimetic research across the campus, and we expect that foundation of biomimetic relevant research activity to expand, over the next five years, as the Biomimicry Research and Innovation Center (BRIC), sponsored by the UA’s Achieving Distinction initiative recruits 10‐12 new interdisciplinary faculty. The IB PhD is a research‐intensive degree – course work is minimal, focusing on core fundamentals to train students in the how and why of interdisciplinary collaboration. Biomimicry Fellows learn to work across disciplinary boundaries to seek out and apply the best technologies and methodologies found in nature to solve challenging corporate problems or educate, engage, and excite STEM faculty and students. Moreover, because of the design, business and educational components, the work of the Fellows extends well beyond basic research, tackling critical elements of marketing, design, development, and prototyping/production in the case of Corporate Sponsor Fellows, and into creative educational processes and teacher professional development in the case of Educational Sponsor Fellows. Fellowships can be awarded to newly recruited students or to in‐house R&D personnel seeking advanced training and experience in Biomimetic Design. Terms of Fellowships are flexibly structured according to a template that works for organizations as diverse as current participants which include Parker Hannifin, GOJO, Sherwin Williams, Ross Environmental, Lubrizol, Goodyear, Bendix, Nottingham Spirk, Lake Ridge Academy, Cleveland’s MC2 STEM High School, Akron’s National Inventor’s Hall of Fame STEM Education Center, and many others BIOMIMICRY FELLOWS AND THE BIOMIMICIRY RESEARCH AND INNOVATION CENTER Current Status 
15 funded Biomimicry Innovation Fellows Biomimicry Innovation Fellows Model ‐ The Biomimicry Fellows in K‐12 and business R&D take classes and do research as a cohort, providing an unprecedented model for the integration of knowledge and activity around our regional innovation landscape. Fellows have a unique opportunity to directly connect our innovation leaders with the education framework that supplies creative, entrepreneurial, and well trained talent that is necessary for innovation to take hold and lead to sustainable regional economic prosperity. Our approach creates an ecosystem of entrepreneurs, researchers, educators, students and their families linked by and through biomimicry as a paradigm for innovation and sustainability. For further information please contact: Peter H. Niewiarowski, Biomimicry Fellowships Director Cell: 330‐603‐3599 Email: [email protected]