AgroPages-BASF inaugurates new Innovation Campus Asia Pacific in Mumbai, India-Agricultural news

• BASF Group’s biggest R&D investment in South Asia

• Global and regional R&D will serve growing industries including automotive, food and nutrition

• New campus will employ up to 300 scientists

BASF Group inaugurated its new Innovation Campus Asia Pacific, located in Mumbai, India. The project will involve a total expected investment of up to €50 million from BASF Group, and marks the Group’s largest research and development (R&D) investment in South Asia. All global research operations at BASF Innovation Campus Asia Pacific (Mumbai) will be housed under BASF 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 rising world population pose huge challenges. 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 consequence, 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 innovation 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 agricultural research, organic synthesis, molecular modelling and advanced process research. The new Innovation Campus includes state-of-the-art laboratories for chemical synthesis, application and process 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 partners. 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, including automotive as well as food and nutrition. Moreover, India is now home to a wide range of high caliber scientists and excellent domestic research capabilities,” said Mr. 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 tailored solutions for the challenges of mobility, housing, environmental protection and hygiene. Through its local subsidiaries, 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 laboratories, modern offices, a full-scale auditorium, cafeteria and employee amenities. The building features a secondary façade to minimize overheating from direct sunlight, energy efficient LED lights, rainwater harvesting, a reflective roof with photovoltaic panels and a windmill to generate renewable energy. Over 50 percent 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 verification for green buildings.

In 2016, BASF Group’s research pipeline encompassed around 3,000 projects, and spending on research and development was €1.863 billion. Around 10,000 employees work in research and development worldwide. Globally, BASF maintains a collaboration network of around 600 excellent universities, research institutions and companies around the world.

One of BASF’s three central technology platforms, Advanced Materials & Systems Research, has been headquartered 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 platforms, Chemical Engineering & Process Research and Bioscience Research, are respectively headquartered in Europe and North America. Innovation Campus Asia Pacific (Mumbai) will house research activities from all these platforms. Through its local subsidiary, BASF India Limited, BASF Group has also been operating an Agricultural Research Station in Pune since 2015, and an R&D Center in Mangalore since 2014, focusing on offering technical and product development support to local and global automotive coatings customers. These R&D facilities form a strong network to drive and support both regional and global innovation projects.