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Sur les hauteurs de Lausanne, l’Ecole hôtelière et Nestlé mènent des expériences sur de nouveaux aliments qui pourraient arriver sur les étals. Une collaboration qui s’inscrit dans le projet de la Swiss Food and Nutrition Valley.

Veste blanche pour les chefs de l’EHL Hospitality Business School, veste noire pour ceux de Nestlé. Dans les cuisines d’application du campus flambant neuf de l’école, inauguré en juillet dernier, des cuisiniers des deux entités s’affairent pour une démonstration de leur travail commun sur l’innovation alimentaire. Le géant veveysan et l’école travaillent ensemble depuis plusieurs années. Une collaboration d’autant plus facile que les bâtiments de l’EHL se situent à quelques minutes seulement du Centre de recherche de Nestlé à Vers-chez-les-Blanc. 

'Bio' means living organism; 'mimicry' means to imitate. Biomimicry is thus the practice of imitating life and nature. Its aim is to draw inspiration from nature's engineering in order to solve the world’s most pressing challenges and ensure a sustainable future for all life on earth.

According to the Biomimicry Institute, biomimicry can be defined as “an approach to innovation that seeks sustainable solutions to human challenges by emulating nature’s time-tested patterns and strategies. The goal is to create products, processes, and policies—new ways of living—that are well-adapted to life on earth over the long haul.”

Biomimicry is a process based on the observation of our planet and its 3.8 billion years of evolution and development. Historically, biological organisms (animals, plants, microbes) have been able to develop strategies to survive, optimize their organization and functioning, and adapt their form to their function. As noted by the American biologist Janine Benyus, a renowned specialist in biomimicry: “Nature has already solved all the challenges we face. Failures have become fossils, and what surrounds us is the key to survival ”. Benyus was the first scientist to pioneer the notion of biomimicry in the late 1990s by developing the basic premise that human beings should consciously emulate nature's ways when looking for solutions to their problems, products and policies. 

In January 2021, the EHL Institute of Nutrition R&D was launched by Dr Inès Blal (Co-Director of the Institute), Patrick Ogheard (Co-Director) and Cyrille Lecossois (Manager). It is one of EHL’s applied research institutes and as such, its objective is to put EHL expertise at the service of applied research by offering a unique set of deliverables to its sponsors.

The mission of the EHL Institute of Nutrition R&D is to develop cutting edge solutions in food and kitchen management for healthier food with a positive social and ecological impact. The three founders envision that a multi-disciplinary approach bridging biomimicry, science, management, and culinary expertise is critical to the future of Nutrition and F&B solutions.