Chemicals India Private Limited, a 100%
subsidiary of BASF SE. The new innovation campus will expand the company’s
existing R&D activities in India to include global and regional research on a
wide range of specialty chemicals. Topics
will cover personal and home care, process development, organic synthesis, crop
protection and many more.
“A growing need for energy, food and
clean water, limited resources, and a ris-
ing world population pose huge challeng-
es. Innovations based on chemistry will
enable new solutions,” said Dr. Martin
Brudermueller, vice chairman of the
Board of Executive Directors, BASF SE
and chief technology officer. “As a con-
sequence, BASF is expanding its research
and development network, especially to
emerging markets in Asia, as we want to
drive innovation addressing customer and
market needs at an early stage. Mumbai
will be another powerful regional innova-
tion hub for BASF, with proximity to the
dynamically growing Indian market.”
The Innovation Campus significantly
expands BASF’s research capacities in
India, which were established in 2005
and expanded in 2014 to cover agricul-
tural research, organic synthesis, mo-
lecular modelling and advanced process
research. The new Innovation Campus
includes state-of-the-art laboratories for
chemical synthesis, application and pro-
cess development, as well as analytics.
It brings all new and existing research
and development activities by BASF in
Mumbai under one roof. Combined with
the broad range of current development
activities, Innovation Campus Asia Pacific
(Mumbai) will enable global know-how
exchange and foster collaboration with
customers, industrial and academic part-
ners. The campus can accommodate up to
300 scientists and will bring together top
scientists from India and other parts of
the world.
“We see the demand for innovative
solutions in many industries in India, in-
cluding automotive as well as food and
nutrition. Moreover, India is now home
to a wide range of high caliber scientists
and excellent domestic research capabili-
ties,” said Sanjeev Gandhi, Member of
the Board of Executive Directors, BASF
SE, responsible for Asia Pacific. BASF has
expanded its presence in India during the
past several years, both in terms of local
manufacturing as well as in providing tai-
lored solutions for the challenges of mo-
bility, housing, environmental protection
and hygiene. Through its local subsidiar-
ies, namely BASF India Limited, BASF
Chemicals India Private Limited and
BASF Catalysts India Private Limited,
BASF Group has invested actively in
India to realize these opportunities, with
approximately €300 million investment
over the past four years in manufacturing
and R&D.
The approximately 20,000 square-
meter campus is a collaborative space
housing scientific and technical labora-
tories, modern offices, a full-scale audi-
torium, cafeteria and employee amenities.
The building features a secondary façade
to minimize overheating from direct sun-
light, energy efficient LED lights, rain-
water harvesting, a reflective roof with
photovoltaic panels and a windmill to
generate renewable energy. Over 50 per-
cent of the lighting in the building will
be generated from renewable sources,
supported by many innovative solutions
from BASF. It is designed to meet the
silver standards of LEED (Leadership in
Energy and Environmental Design), the
world’s most widely used third-party ver-
ification for green buildings.
In 2016, BASF Group’s research pipe-
line encompassed around 3,000 projects,
and spending on research and develop-
ment was €1.863 billion. Around 10,000
employees work in research and develop-
ment worldwide. Globally, BASF main-
tains a collaboration network of around
600 excellent universities, research insti-
tutions and companies around the world.
One of BASF’s three central technol-
ogy platforms, Advanced Materials &
Systems Research, has been headquar-
tered at the Innovation Campus Asia
Pacific (Shanghai) since January 2016,
headed by Dr. Harald Lauke, President
of the technology platform and Regional
Research Representative for Asia
Pacific. The other two technology plat-
forms, Chemical Engineering & Process
Research and Bioscience Research, are
respectively headquartered in Europe
and North America. Innovation
Campus Asia Pacific (Mumbai)
will house research activi-
ties from all these platforms.
Through its local subsidiary, BASF India
Limited, BASF Group has also been op-
erating an Agricultural Research Station
in Pune since 2015, and an R&D Center
in Mangalore since 2014, focusing on of-
fering technical and product development
support to local and global automotive
coatings customers. These R&D facilities
form a strong network to drive and sup-
port both regional and global innovation
projects.
Archroma Celebrates
Opening of Global
Competence Center
for Surface & Coating
Technology
Archroma has officially inaugurated
its new Global Center of Excellence for
Surface & Coating Technology. The
Center, which opened yesterday, underlines Archroma’s ambition to bring new,
innovative solutions to the packaging and
specialty paper markets.
The brand new Global Center of
Excellence for Surface & Coating
Technology is based in Bradford, UK,
at the location of Archroma’s application laboratory team for deposit control.
It hosts the global product manager for
Surface & Coating and a team of application experts, all with close links to
Archroma’s Research & Development
organization and the sales teams around
the globe. Over the last four months, the
existing laboratory facilities have been
extended and state-of-the-art equipment
for application development and measurement have been installed.
This investment emphasizes the commitment by Archroma to bring new
technologies in the area of barrier and
surface coating to the packaging market.
At the opening session, Beate Plueckhan,
president Region EMEA, commented
on the potential offered by this market:
“Especially in the area of food packaging, consumers are looking for safe, convenient and sustainable packaging. This
offers many opportunities to market
new surface & coating solutions. With
