Paleo-inspiration is a paradigm shift that leads scientists and designers to draw inspiration from ancient materials (from Art, archaeology, natural history or paleo-environments) to develop new systems or processes, particularly with a view to sustainability.

While this type of application has been known for a long time, the concept itself was coined by teams from the French National Centre for Scientific Research, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Bern University of Applied Sciences from the term Bioinspiration. They published the concept in a seminal paper published online in 2017 by the journal Angewandte Chemie ^[1].

Paleo-inspiration has already contributed to numerous applications in fields as varied as green chemistry, the development of new artist materials, composite materials, microelectronics, and construction materials ^[2].