Research, Development & Innovation
Sustainability and the reduction of our ecological footprint has become a key driver for AkzoNobel’s business and is an integral part of AkzoNobel’s new strategy for research, development and innovation. The strategy is fully aligned with the targeted 30 % Eco-premium products in 2015. We apply stage gate processes to all major research and development projects. Integral to these processes are reviews of the sustainability of raw materials, chemical transformation methods, production technologies and end-of-life aspects of the products. In 2010, approximately 4,000 people worked in AkzoNobel’s RD&I function. The total spend on RD&I was € 334 million, 2.3 percent of revenue.
Following the acquisition of ICI in early 2008 a new strategy and operating model for RD&I were developed. The overall goal of achieving a significant additional annual revenue from innovation by the end of 2012 will be achieved by:
- Enhancing our technology leadfership by creating 4 major new technology platforms
- Making AkzoNobel a strategic development partner of choice with our major customers
- Increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of our R&D
- Making RD&I a key Talent Factory
- Being a key contributor to the company’s promise of delivering 30 % of our revenues from eco-efficient solutions
- Making sure that we’ve got appropriate R&D presence and capability in our key marketplaces
In the new AkzoNobel RD&I organization, the Business Unit Innovation Resources continue to be the powerhouse of innovation. However, they are now supported by the addition of new engines to deliver bigger, bolder innovations – faster:
- Expert Capability Groups (ECG’s), which are teams of technical experts in the fields of science and technology that are critical to AkzoNobel’s businesses and customers. Working within business-led “Big Innovation Projects” they will provide the insight and scientific breakthroughs and create the inventions needed to drive strong technically differentiated innovation. There are six ECG's: Complex Fluids & Colloid Science, Materials Physics, Materials Synthesis, Measurement & Analysis, Polymer Chemistry and Process Technology.
- Communities of Practice (COP's), which are super-networks bringing together our leading experts in a number of area's. Their job is to identify and share best practices and ensure that we leverage all the technical knowledge that we can muster about the applications know-how and the functionality that AkzoNobel's products deliver to customers. CoP's in the field of biorenewables and Corrosion Protection have been launched, while several others are under development.
Typical of current focus area’s of our RD & I are:
VOC reduction in coatings products
- Low VOC and solvent-free products, whose performance match and often exceed those of solvent-based predecessors, are being developed by our Decorative Paints and several Performance Coatings businesses.
- Powder Coatings has extended the application of solvent-free systems to the protective and aesthetic coating of plastic components, and most recently wood-based products in the furniture industry.
Eco-efficient resource utilization
- Bio-renewable materials in general, and saccharides, oils and fats in particular, are providing a rich vein of sustainable raw materials which have the potential to not only serve as alternative building blocks to petrochemical-based feedstocks, but also to help create products with new properties and applications.
- About half of the sales of the Surface Chemistry business are already based on renewable feedstocks. This will grow as it extends its investment in the research and development of personal care, agrochemical adjuvants and oilfield chemical products based on vegetable oils, as well as mono- and poly-saccharides.
Further information can be found under Innovation Performance
To underpin its commitment to scientific research as the vehicle for innovation, AkzoNobel has created the AkzoNobel Science Award. The objective of the Award is to encourage scientific research in the widest sense.