About NAO

Open Innovation is a key success factor in creating solutions for a sustainable future

Long-term relationship building and a close network between top universities in Asia Pacific and BASF as industrial partner enable all of the partners to extend their scientific horizon and understanding of future materials and systems. A goal of this initiative is to jointly develop new materials for the automotive, building and construction, and personal care industries.

The academic partners contribute not only their expertise in material science, modeling and formulation methods, but also provide new ideas for interesting approaches to research. Besides fundamental scientific knowledge, BASF researchers contribute the necessary experience in transforming research results into technically feasible products and processes and input about which material properties are needed in the different industries and applications.

The selection of the research topics is based on common scientific interest between the academic institution and BASF. Deep scientific understanding and links to given applications are key features of successful co-operation projects. The scientific work is mainly performed at the university or institute by selected students – PhD candidates or postdocs – in close collaboration with BASF scientists. Furthermore, NAO offers a regular exchange platform in the form of workshops, discussions and presentations, supporting innovation in polymers and advanced materials in Asia.

Three postdoc centers form an important part of the BASF global academic networking landscape: NAO in Asia Pacific, JONAS in Europe and NORA in North America.

"This collaboration with prestigious Asian universities is an important expansion of our international research network. It is part of BASF's strategy to further extend its global research and development activities. We rely on strong partners for this project."
Dr. Jens Rieger, Senior Vice President in Advanced Materials and Systems Research BASF SE