BASF keeps R&D spending at high level

02-01-2010: In 2010, BASF again intends to maintain its research budget at the previous years’ high level, with an overall target of €1.38 billion. This was confirmed by Dr. Andreas Kreimeyer, Member of the Board of Executive Directors and Research Executive Director, at the company’s Research Press Conference in Ludwigshafen.

For the previous year 2009, BASF’s research allocations reached almost €1.4 billion, slightly above the level of the previous year 2008 (€1.35 billion).

“Only with a continuous flow of innovations can we consistently use competitive advantages to achieve above-market organic growth. Continuity of research strategy is important both in good times and also in times of crisis,” said Kreimeyer explaining BASF’s long-term commitment.

The company's R&D strategy aims to enhance the existing portfolio, develop customer-specific system solutions and deliver solutions to the challenges of the future arising from global megatrends, he continued. The complex issues to be addressed include supplying a growing world population with water, food, energy or mobility. Reflecting these technology and chemistry-relevant global trends, BASF has defined five Growth Clusters for strategic corporate research: Plant Biotechnology, White (Industrial) Biotechnology, Nanotechnology, Energy Management and Raw Material Change.

“The main drivers in achieving our ambitious research goals are our currently around 9,300 employees in Research and Development who are dedicated to transforming a pipeline brimming with about 3,300 projects into new business,” emphasized Kreimeyer. It will also be necessary to respond to the paradigm shift currently underway in chemistry, whereby success will no longer be determined merely by new molecules but by new effects, new systems and system solutions, new components and functional materials.