BASF: Groundbreaking for the third phase of Innovation Campus Shanghai
BASF wants to strengthen its innovation capabilities in Asia by breaking ground for the third phase of its Innovation Campus Shanghai and by establishing an academic sounding board as part of the Network for Asian Open Research (NAO).
The expansion includes an additional research and development (R&D) building and one R&D workshop building. Construction is expected to be completed by the end of 2022; by then, the total investment of BASF into its Innovation Campus Shanghai will sum up to around EUR 280 million.
This further expansion is intended to underscore BASF’s continued commitment to further build up innovation capacities in China and the whole Asia Pacific region. With this expansion, BASF will strengthen its R&D capabilities for advanced materials and systems as well as for chemical engineering in order to serve the needs of growing industries, such as coatings, automotive, and construction.
Enhancing the collaborations between BASF and universities
Accompanying this expansion at the Innovation Campus Shanghai, BASF is establishing a sounding board made up of experts from top universities in Asia as part of the Network for Asian Open Research (NAO). The sounding board is intended to strengthen BASF’s innovation pipelines and is supposed to accelerate market introduction by providing professional consultancy for R&D projects, anticipating industry trends, and enhancing the collaborations between BASF and universities.
Launched in 2014, NAO is a joint platform of BASF and meanwhile 12 prestigious universities and institutes in Asia Pacific. To date, more than 70 joint projects have been completed, covering a wide range of research areas including monomers, polymers, surfaces and interfaces, coatings, catalysis, battery materials, chemical and process engineering, insecticides, as well as digitalisation and smart manufacturing in R&D.
