Sustainability & innovation to drive growth at BASF

30 Mar '12

3 min read

BASF is realigning its research and is focusing even more strongly on the market and the global customer industries. Alongside the further development of the established business portfolio, the main research emphasis is being placed on growth and technology fields that address social challenges and offer BASF relevant business potential.

This new orientation is based on BASF's “We create chemistry” strategy through which the company is intensifying its focus on sustainability and innovation as growth drivers. For 2012, BASF is planning to increase its research and development spending to €1.7 billion (previous year 2011: €1.6 billion).

“To seize growth opportunities we are systematically expanding our product and technology portfolio, establishing an even more global presence and increasing our efforts to develop solutions for a sustainable future,” said Dr. Andreas Kreimeyer, member of the Board of Executive Directors of BASF and Research Executive Director at today's Research Press Conference in Ludwigshafen, Germany.

In 2020, BASF wants to achieve sales of around €30 billion with products that have not been on the market for longer than ten years. To accomplish this, BASF is strengthening its collaboration with key industries and concentrating on growth fields relevant to society such as “heat management”, “water treatment” and “organic electronics”.

These are new business areas for BASF with high growth potential. At the same time, enabling technologies have been defined – such as raw material change, material systems and nanotechnology as well as white biotechnology – which are needed to generate solutions for the growth fields.

In order to implement the new orientation most effectively, the research platforms have been tailored to the various business and technology areas and assigned specific topics. Thus, the activities of the platform “Process Research & Chemical Engineering” concentrate on new technologies, processes and catalysis.

The topics crop protection; organic electronics and white biotechnology are being pursued in the research division “Biological & Effect Systems Research”. In the research platform “Advanced Materials & Systems Research”, activities are focused mainly on new polymeric materials and system solutions and the fourth platform “Plant Science”, is continuing its research into plant biotechnology.

In addition, BASF Future Business, which opens up new business areas for the company, is being expanded. It is responsible for developing and marketing business areas new for BASF. At present, the focus is on the topics “energy management”, “organic electronics” and “medical solutions.” In addition, BASF Venture Capital, a subsidiary of BASF Future Business, is investing in start-up companies specializing in innovative chemistry and system solutions in BASF's growth and technology fields.

“The aim of the new structure is to significantly expand our portfolio of functionalized materials and system solutions and continue improving our position in the emerging markets,” explained Kreimeyer. “We want to strengthen our technological and operational excellence, create value from interdisciplinary innovations and position our activities on a global scale to meet the needs of the markets.”

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