Nature-Inspired Solutions MSc

About this degree

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.

Our MSc will help you translate insights from nature into disruptive technologies for sustainable development in diverse areas, including process engineering, materials, biomedicine, catalysis, water and renewable energy. You will be equipped with the knowledge and skills needed to drive bio-inspired innovation in industries ranging from manufacturing, engineering and design to the built environment and biosciences.

A minimum of an upper second-class Bachelor's degree in a relevant discipline from a UK university or an overseas qualification of an equivalent standard.

The English language level for this programme is: Level 1

UCL Pre-Master's and Pre-sessional English courses are for international students who are aiming to study for a postgraduate degree at UCL. The courses will develop your academic English and academic skills required to succeed at postgraduate level.

Further information can be found on our English language requirements page.

This is a new programme. However, based on information from alumni of the Nature-Inspired Chemical Engineering (NICE) module (CENG0029) and on PhD graduates from the Centre for Nature-Inspired Engineering (CNIE), typical destinations of graduates are expected to be either in a professional career (industry, designer, entrepreneur, policy maker, etc) or have an academic/research focus (PhD, mostly interdisciplinary).