Eastman To Fund Academic R&D

Eastman Chemical will spend $10 million at North Carolina State University over six years to support research in chemistry, biomolecular engineering, materials science, and other scientific disciplines. Some of the funding will go to a new 2,000-sq-ft lab to be located on the school’s Centennial research campus in Raleigh, N.C. To speed the commercialization of any discoveries, the two have agreed to a schedule of costs and intellectual property arrangements. “Our partnership launches a world-class open innovation collaboration with a leading university,” says Gregory W. Nelson, Eastman’s chief technology officer. “That relationship will help us bring differentiated new ideas, technologies, and materials from early-stage research to the market more quickly than traditional approaches.”