German chemicals major 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 strategy to intensify its focus on sustainability and innovation as growth drivers. For 2012, the group is planning to increase its R&D 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.

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.

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 the company. 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."

Solutions for better health

One of the customer industries BASF will be concentrating on further in future is "Health and Nutrition". The group already supplies numerous products for this market. With the introduction of new photostable UV filters the company has established itself as a global technology and market leader.

BASF is also making a significant contribution in the health sector with its pharmaceutical excipients. The bioavailability of pharmaceutically active substances is of growing importance because active substances are becoming ever more complex, often with an associated loss of solubility. The body cannot absorb undissolved active substances. BASF has developed a polymeric solubilizer, which can also make high active substance concentrations available for the body. Another new polymer is a tablet coating system, the first polymer for this application which is marketed as an aqueous solution.

Water also plays a central and increasing important role in the health sector. BASF's products and solutions for water treatment include flocculating and coagulating agents for waste water treatment and also membranes for (ultra)filtration, for example of drinking water, an area of work that BASF also established with the acquisition of Inge Watertechnologies in 2011. The plastic membranes also contain pores that are only 20 nanometers in size, allowing germs, bacteria and even viruses to be filtered out of the water. BASF estimates the market in the growth field water of €20 billion, representing a growth potential of more than €800 million.

Global research

"Effective and efficient research is an important success factor for achieving our growth targets and is simultaneously a factor distinguishing us from our competitors. Research and development will therefore have even greater priority in future than before," BASF's Research Executive Director emphasized. In 2011, the number of employees working in research and development increased to around 10,100 (previous year 2010: 9,600). In North and South America as well as Asia however, BASF research is still underrepresented.

"We will have to expand our presence and speed up our activities in these regions." A first step in this direction is the new Innovation Campus in Shanghai scheduled to open at the end of this year. "By creating innovations in Asia for Asia, we want to grow with our customers. By 2020, we want to double our research activities in Asia and the Americas and conduct 50 % of our research and development outside Europe," Kreimeyer explained.

An important asset for globalized research is an international network of external researchers. BASF is already working in around 1,950 collaborations worldwide with universities, research institutes, start-ups and partners from industry. One example is the "Joint Research Network in Advanced Materials and Systems" (JONAS), a new initiative for researching functional materials in partnership with the universities of Strasbourg and Freiburg as well as ETH Zurich.