Summary:
A Dutch company is a major producer of specialty chemicals. They worldwide deliver essential chemistry to many markets that require control of surface and interface behavior, rheology, and other physical properties. In order to meet the increasing demand for multifunctional, label-free products, they need innovative technologies and solutions. They are seeking companies or universities to foster and co-develop new technologies via a research or technical cooperation agreement.
Description:
A Dutch multinational is a specialty chemicals leader supplying essential chemistry to markets worldwide. The company delivers essential chemistry to many markets that require control of surface and interface behavior, rheology, and other physical properties. For example, they help make ice cream smooth, household cleaning products effective, and paint splatter less when applied.
Nowadays, customers and end-users increasingly ask for multifunctional, “label-free” products, i.e. products with simple(r) ingredients which do not require (chemical warning) labeling. The company wants to meet and exceed their expectations by developing new technologies in fluid and interface science through partnership.
The technologies may be particles, polymers, discrete molecules, mixtures, or even combinations of these if that yields synergistic performance. In any case they should allow manipulation and control of things like nano- and microstructures, surface tension, and viscosity. Ultimately, their aim is to deliver desired customer functionalities such as dirt removal, rheology, improved application behavior of paint or plaster, abrasion resistance, and more.
It is considered that there are many opportunities in this field. The main challenge is the development of products that combine superb functionalities and performance with “label-free.” Another challenge is to bring this to the market quickly, so any solution should be readily scalable to industrial application and feasible to produce at industrially relevant cost levels.
The company is looking for cooperation with partners that can help develop any novel technology or chemistry that can significantly impact and control the performance of consumer and industrial products. They are looking for both completely new solutions or chemical building blocks, but also for combinations of label-free chemistries that provide synergistic performance. Cooperation with partners such as institutes, universities and companies would be in the frame of a research or a technical cooperation agreement.
IMPORTANT NOTE: This technology request is an innovation challenge and is published on an open innovation platform from the 8th of January until the 8th of March 2019. If an organization does express interest in cooperation with this firm before closing date, it will be guided towards
this open innovation platform on which one can get in touch with the company experts. Mind that posts on this platform are not confidential.
Beside open discussions on the platform, sharing of confidential information will be made possible on demand. After that, the firm will select the SME's with whom they would like to cooperate in the development of a solution. Once the challenge is closed, EOI's for this technology request will be treated in the traditional way.
Type (e.g. company, R&D institution…), field of industry and Role of Partner Sought:
Type of partners:
SME’s, universities and other innovators with a focus on the research & development of any novel technology or chemistry that can significantly impact and control the performance of consumer and industrial products. They are looking for both completely new solutions or chemical building blocks, but also for combinations of label-free chemistries that provide synergistic performance.
Type of partner collaboration:
The Dutch multinational wants to work together as equal partners, under shared-IP conditions, this could be in the form of i. a technical cooperation agreement or ii. research agreement, iii. or any other kind of agreement that suits the purpose.
Technical Specification or Expertise Sought:
The company is open to any label-free solution that meets as many as possible of the following criteria:
• Be a viable building block that brings novel functionality in the fields of rheology, interface, or particle science
• The company is especially looking for startups and scale-ups that want to grow by jointly developing their products into our markets
• Scalability and affordability: it is preferred to launch a product within 2-4 years
• Quality and experience of the partner in the field of interest here described.
Stage of Development:
Concept stage
Comments Regarding Stage of Development:
Since this request is subject of an open innovation challenge also other stages of development are possible
IPR Status:
Other
Comments Regarding IPR Status:
Since this request is subject of an open innovation challenge the IPR status will be taken into account and be discussed.
The technology could be patented in a wide range of possible countries/regions, with their eligibility for this call available for discussion
External code:
TRNL20190128001
