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- Seeking Money, and the Quiet Power of Rightful Discovery
Seeking Money, and the Quiet Power of Rightful Discovery
What's been brewing this week?
Dear reader,
There are moments in work and thought when the known paths no longer suffice. The familiar routes to funding, opportunity, and recognition grow tangled, weighed down by delay and complexity.
For those who labour in the fields of biodesign, synthetic biology, and climate innovation, time is precious and direction essential.
At Biodesign Academy, we have shaped an instrument to meet this need: Biofund Scout GPT, an assistant designed not for distraction but for clarity. It does not speak in riddles. It points the way.
💶 EU Funding Just Got Smarter
For founders, researchers & grant-seekers in biodesign and biotech
We built a custom AI assistant to help you find and win EU funding, faster.
Whether you're working on sustainable biomaterials, synthetic biology, AI for health, or climate tech, this GPT-powered tool helps you:
Discover Horizon Europe, EIC, and national calls tailored to your tech and TRL
Find partners and benchmarks for stronger, more competitive proposals
Align with EU Green Deal goals and key policy priorities
Get evaluator-style feedback and build a long-term funding roadmap
This tool was built by Biodesign Academy, now you can try it:
🧬 Designing with “Alpha Faults”
Most people think AlphaFold is about getting the structure right.
But what if the real design magic happens when it gets things wrong?
In next week’s Foundational Tier deep dive, we explore “AlphaFaults”: those weird folds, low-confidence loops, and structural clashes that scientists usually discard. We show you how to reframe them as creative prompts for materials, textures, and interactions: especially if you're working with cellulose, algae, or fungi.
You’ll learn:
How to read “errors” as functional cues
How to annotate structure predictions like design sketches
Why fault-first thinking might be the missing link in your regenerative material process
New article drops this week. Join the Foundational Tier to get it first.
🚨 Your Lab's Molecular Design Tools Could Be Illegal in 3 Days
June 28, 2025: The day your favourite protein design platform might become a legal liability.
The European Accessibility Act doesn't just apply to websites anymore. Starting this Friday, every digital tool serving European users, including that AI-powered molecular design software your lab depends on, must meet strict accessibility standards or face penalties.
The tools at risk:
Educational bio-design software used in European universities
Any molecular visualization tool offered to EU researchers or students
Web-based protein folding platforms
Here's the problem: Many biodesign platform fails basic accessibility tests. They're built for sighted users who can navigate complex 3D visualizations, interpret colour-coded molecular maps, and manipulate intricate interface elements with precision.
If you can't see the screen clearly, these tools are useless.
2.2 billion people worldwide live with vision impairment. In molecular design, we're systematically excluding brilliant minds who could revolutionize biomaterial discovery/fabrications, synthetic biology, and bioengineering, simply because our interfaces assume everyone can see.
Imagine a visually impaired biochemist trying to:
Navigate a 3D protein structure with no audio cues
Interpret molecular interactions shown only through colour changes
Access design parameters buried in visual-only dashboards
This isn't just about compliance, it's about wasted human ideas and potential.
Why This Matters Beyond Legal Risk
Biodesign claims to embrace interdisciplinary collaboration, but what good is diversity if entire populations can't access our tools? Every inaccessible interface represents:
Lost innovation from excluded researchers
Narrower perspectives in life-saving research
Violation of biodesign's core principle: designing for all life
The deadline isn't negotiable. Starting Friday, non-compliance becomes a legal and ethical liability.
💡 Ready to Future-Proof Your Platform?
Accessibility audits for molecular design platforms
Inclusive curriculum consulting for educational institutions
Screen-reader-optimized workflow development
📩 Reply now or book a consultation: because molecular design should be accessible to every brilliant mind, regardless of how they perceive the world.
Let us not speak only of innovation, but of who it reaches and who it leaves behind. A discipline that claims to serve life must be accessible to every mind drawn to its questions, regardless of how they perceive the world.
As new regulations take hold, we are reminded that to design justly is to design openly. In these coming days, may we not retreat into habit but rise to meet the quiet challenge of inclusion with intention and with grace.
Until next week,
Raphael
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