Six months earlier the partner companies were introduced to the NIDwiki, the consortium’s online platform where tools are shared and refined. Since then the NID wiki has been a resource for the companies with ongoing cases and the three NID graduates.

The application of the new and re-purposed tools was supported by the two action-researchers through workshops and mentoring the graduate students. This close collaboration offers a real-time view into the fuzzy practice of design. The research revealed how some tools turn out to be redundant, how others could be improved, and on which part of the design process the NID method should focus.

That turns out to be the fuzzy front end, where the scope and targets of a project are determined. The best practice is to have all stakeholders involved at that stage, and to state the intentions of the project together. That requires ‘Selling NID to stakeholders’, which was the theme for the meeting. The conclusions that were drawn there will underpin the next iteration of the NID method.

The NID research pivots around creating and improving tools for Nature Inspired Design and to do that, we have created a new tool: the NIDwiki.

NIDwiki is a website on which the users (the consortium) build, remove, add and change content. The main content is a collection of tools that emerged from the best practice interviews with the consortium and from literature. As these tools are applied in practice they will be honed through reflection, comments and adaptations. In addition, the NIDwiki is also a platform for communication within the consortium, more transparent than email and providing valuable research data.

On the 18th of October, in collaboration with O2 Netherlands, we held a meeting to present the results of the first phase to a larger public. The meeting was held at the new location of the established design agency Fabrique. Theo Wolters, founder of Fabrique Invent, was our enthousiastic host for the evening.

O2 Netherlands is an association of sustainable designers. They are known for their interest in the latest developments in sustainable design. Their advice, amongst other things, was:

- to focus the research on NID specific bottlenecks, like collaboration with the supply chain and with biologists; - to make the method flexible enough to be applicable in a wide range of situations.

The next O2 NID event will be a workshop taking place in the second project phase.

Cradle to cradle is gebaseerd op drie principes van de natuur:

1. afval = voedsel: hergebruik alle materialen als grondstof voor nieuwe producten;
2. benut de zon: haal energie uit lokale, vernieuwbare bronnen;
3. respecteer diversiteit: elke situatie is anders, dus stem je ontwerp af op de omgeving van het product.

EcoSmart, een dochter van van Gansewinkel, maakt de smartbin van 100% gerecycled en volledig recyclebaar kunststof, die het makkelijk maakt om afval op de werkvloer te scheiden.

De samenwerking tussen onderzoekers en bedrijven is intensief en praktijk-gericht. Na de eerste gezamenlijke verkenning (nog in 2011) en de formele start van het project in maart dit jaar zijn alle bedrijven inmiddels geïnterviewd om vast te leggen wat in de praktijk de bijzondere uitdagingen, problemen en mogelijkheden zijn van NID.

Dit solide onderzoek vormt de basis voor het ‘Best Practice Model’, de eerste versie van onze ontwerpmethode, die vanaf november 2012 door de bedrijven in de praktijk zal worden gebracht en getest. Hierbij ondersteunen de onderzoekers de acht bedrijven met raad en daad, o.a. door het ontwikkelen van specifieke ontwerptools.

De methode en tools worden vervolgens in een tweede iteratie verbeterd en eind 2013 openbaar gemaakt. Parallel hieraan doet Ingrid de Pauw, die het project in 2011 samen met Ernst-Jan Mul acquireerde, diepte-onderzoek als promovenda, hetgeen in 2014 zal uitmonden in haar proefschrift over NID als ontwerpstrategie. In datzelfde jaar wordt de methode verder verfijnd en daarna, begin 2015, verspreid, waarmee dit IOP-IPCR project zal zijn afgerond.