Who we are

NEO - Network for European Open Innovation

Who we are

Our Mission

The mission of the Network for European Open Innovation (NEO) is to pioneer collaborative innovation that drives sustainable progress in chemistry and beyond. By strategically connecting BASF with Europe’s foremost academic institutions, startups, and industry leaders, we co-develop transformative solutions that address global challenges in sustainability, digitalization, and carbon management. Leveraging our unique proximity to BASF headquarters and our dedicated joint labs, NEO fosters a dynamic ecosystem where cutting-edge ideas flourish, partnerships thrive, and impactful technologies are brought to life - ensuring BASF's leadership in Open Innovation and advancing a more sustainable future.

The NEO Network

The Network for European Open Innovation is a strategic initiative of BASF that harnesses the power of Open Innovation to co-create technologies with external partners. Positioned at the heart of Europe, close to our headquarters and joint innovation labs, NEO plays a crucial role in advancing BASF’s commitment to driving sustainable and cutting-edge solutions. Our proximity to key innovation hubs across the continent, coupled with our deep collaboration with academia, entrepreneurs, and industry leaders, makes us the leading chemical company in Open Innovation since our inception.

What we can offer / BASF's Open Innovation ecosystem

Our Strategic Pillars to catalyze Open Innovation

Effective Partnership Identification & Engagement: We identify ideas outside the BASF space. We align our collaborations with BASF's innovation and business strategies to ensure that our partnerships are impactful and mutually beneficial.
Operational Excellence & Transparency: We produce proof of concepts for the BASF research programs and operational divisions. We simplify processes and enhance collaboration efforts to maximize resource efficiency, ensuring that every engagement delivers value for all parties involved.
Regional Impact: By strengthening connections within Europe’s dynamic innovation ecosystem, we connect key players from academic institutions, start-ups, and other industry leaders to BASF’s global R&D pipeline, ensuring the seamless flow of groundbreaking ideas.
Team Health & Culture: We cultivate an inclusive and supportive environment that fosters continuous growth, well-being, and professional development for our teams and partners. We grow our team through the talent of our collaborators.

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People

Executive & Global Leadership

Dr. Alice Glaettli

Senior Vice President Digitalization, Automation & Innovation Management

Dr. Dominique Moulin

Global Head of Academic Scouting and Academic Networks

Open Innovation Managers (OIM)

Our top partners

ARC CBBC

The Advanced Research Center Chemical Building Blocks Consortium (ARC CBBC) is the Netherlands’ national center for circular and sustainable chemistry. It involves key universities such as Utrecht, Groningen, and Eindhoven, collaborating with industry partners like Shell, BASF, and AkzoNobel. The consortium focuses on energy transition, feedstock transition, and materials transition, fostering collaboration across Dutch universities.

HetCatLab

HetCatLab is a leader in interdisciplinary research, bridging chemistry, catalysis and chemical engineering with a strong focus on prototyping. The lab addresses diverse topics through innovative approaches, fostering the development of practical solutions and cutting-edge technologies. With a team of postdoctoral researchers, master, bachelor, and internship students, HetCatLab serves as a dynamic hub for advancing chemical research and prototyping.

BARI

BARI is a strategic partnership focused on advancing modern chemical R&D and production, with Imperial College London as a key partner. It emphasizes interdisciplinary clusters that utilize machine learning and automation in R&D, optimize synthesis processes, reactor design, and safety engineering through flow chemistry, and develop novel value and supply chains.

Want to know more about our relevant projects in Europe?

Date

Trade News |

September 11, 2023

Partnership between BASF and Nanotech Energy will enable production of lithium-ion batteries in North America with locally recycled content and low CO₂ footprint

Ludwigshafen, Germany and Chico, California – BASF, a globally leading battery materials producer, and Nanotech Energy, a worldwide leader in the field of graphene-based energy storage products, have agreed to partner to significantly reduce the CO₂ footprint of Nanotech’s lithium-ion batteries for the North American market. The agreement aims to close the loop for lithium-ion batteries in North America, with BASF producing cathode active materials from recycled metals in Battle Creek, Michigan, for the usage in lithium-ion battery cells produced by Nanotech Energy. Feeding recycled metals into the production of new lithium-ion batteries can reduce the CO₂ impact of batteries by about 25 percent compared to the use of primary metals from mines.

Date

NORA: Bridging the gap between disruptive innovation and industrial scalability

NORA connects BASF to different areas of knowledge and innovation in the academic and entrepreneurial ecosystem across the U.S.

Using road construction resources, a worker is installing new asphalt road surface with space, Generative AI.

Unleashing the power of open innovation through intrapreneurship

BASF experts developed and tested a new formulation in just under two years by implementing an agile methodology. Learn more about this in our new article.