Nature-Inspired Solutions MSc

UCL Chemical Engineering is one of the top-rated Chemical Engineering departments in the world, being internationally renowned for its outstanding research and education.

The MSc in Nature-Inspired Solutions is specifically designed to allow students to develop transformative solutions by drawing on inspirations from nature (e.g. resilience, scalability, and efficiency) on interdisciplinary problems through research-related teaching and public engagement. For example, you learn from the scalability and efficiency of the human lung to redesign hydrogen fuel cells and CO₂ electroreduction in our race to net-zero, in the context of the energy transition and environmental sustainability. You learn from the resilience of the kidney and the efficiency of cell membranes to develop superior solutions for water treatment, and you learn from trees and forests to approach circularity in manufacturing.

This programme covers systematic design approaches to innovate in a wide range of fields, including sustainable manufacturing, energy and environmental technology, functional materials, health and biomedical engineering, and the built environment, where outside-the-box thinking is urgently needed within the pressing context of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Moreover, the programme prepares you to learn how to work in multi-disciplinary teams on interdisciplinary problems, equipping you with transferable, lateral thinking skills and a competitive edge, for careers in research and development, entrepreneurship or industry.

This MSc programme educates future graduates to be uniquely qualified in innovation and design based on unconventional problem-solving and analysis, using a wealth of solutions informed by nature, seamlessly working across traditional discipline boundaries.

The course will be delivered at the brand new UCL East campus on the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford, east London. This is the biggest development in our 200-year history, and our accessible, state-of-the-art facilities will have shared labs and workshop spaces open to all, to facilitate collaboration across different disciplines. The Park around the campus is a living landscape of biodiversity and a testbed for ground-breaking innovation.