BASF to reorganize R&D

BASF will undertake a major reorganization of its global R&D activities starting in the second quarter of 2022. The company will bundle its global research activities into one central research unit based in Ludwigshafen, Germany, with about 3,500 employees. BASF currently has regional research headquarters in Ludwigshafen; Research Triangle Park, North Carolina; and Shanghai. BASF asserted earlier this year that Ludwigshafen will continue to be its largest R&D hub. The new unit will be managed by Detlef Kratz, now the head of BASF’s process research and chemical engineering division. At the same time, the company will transfer about 1,800 researchers directly into its business units. “This will further strengthen the customer focus of research and development,” BASF says in a press release. As of 2020, BASF had about 11,000 R&D employees working in about 70 locations. The firm spent $2.5 billion on R&D activities last year, according to its annual report. Of that amount, $2.05 billion was accounted for by the firm’s business units.