Member Article

Unilever signs research deal with University of Nottingham

North West-established consumer goods business Unilever has signed up to a research agreement with the University of Nottingham.

Now an Anglo-Dutch firm, Unilever will explore new research opportunities in a wide range of areas including consumer psychology, green processing, energy and sustainability.

The University has a long established relationship with Unilever, after working on research together in consumer behaviour, food, crop science, biomedicine and MRI scanning, in line with the company’s vast range of product types.

Some of its brands include household names such as Flora margarine, PG Tips tea and Persil washing products.

Unilever also offers studentships and summer placements to students from the University on a regular basis.

Professor David Greenaway, Vice Chancellor of the University, signed the agreement along with Unilever’s Professor Jim Crilly, who is Senior Vice President of the firm’s Strategic Science Group.

Prof. Crilly commented: “Research and innovation is at the core of sustainable growth for Unilever.

“To continue to be successful we strongly believe that we need to collaborate with the very best partners if we are to access new ideas and technologies and create superior products.

“We are confident that our partnership with The University of Nottingham will enable us to drive bigger, faster innovation to underpin the growth ambitions of Unilever.

“The University of Nottingham is world class with an international reputation for the quality of its research.

“This partnership makes strategic sense: The University is close to the Unilever research hubs in the UK and importantly has an impressive geographic reach with campuses in China and Malaysia which is important for a company like Unilever where over half of our revenue is generated in emerging markets.”

Prof. Greenaway added: “We are delighted to be announcing this strategic partnership with Unilever.

“The framework agreement marks the start of a new phase in our relationship with a world class organisation, which will see us jointly developing new and innovative ideas in a wide variety of areas.

“Our partnership with Unilever will be of great benefit to both parties and we are all looking forward to undertaking some very exciting research with them over the coming years.”

Unilever keeps some of its R&D bases in the UK to support its large global business, and Prof, Crilly heads up the Strategic Science Group in this country as well as other global locations.

Chris Rudd, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Knowledge Transfer at Nottingham commented: “The framework partnership with Unilever is a great example of the way in which we like to build long term relationships with our industrial partners.

“We worked closely with Unilever to determine their requirements, and, after discussions with academics across the University, we were able to offer a defined package of research support in a wide range of sectors to meet the company’s specific needs.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Miranda Dobson .