DSM breaks ground on new Materials Sciences research building

Royal DSM, the global Life Sciences and Materials Sciences company, held the official groundbreaking event for construction of a new materials sciences research building on the Chemelot Campus in Sittard-Geleen, the Netherlands. The new facility, which is scheduled to open in 2014, forms part of an investment of around €100 million that DSM is making in three new R&D facilities in Sittard-Geleen and in Delft (also in the Netherlands).

Speaking at the groundbreaking ceremony, Roelof Westerbeek, President DSM Engineering Plastics, confirmed DSM’s commitment to innovation in the Netherlands, where the company was founded over 110 years ago. “We are making a significant contribution to further building the knowledge pool in important areas of research and development, and we are also creating employment opportunities,” he said. The building will house about 420 employees.

The new facility will be the most important R&D centre for DSM Engineering Plastics in the world, next to the centres in Asia and the United Sates. The new facility will also provide R&D for other units in DSM’s Materials Science cluster, such as DSM Dyneema, as well as new innovation activities in the field of bio-based materials and biomedical materials. Historically, DSM’s high performance materials research has been centered in Sittard-Geleen, which has led to a clustering of key technological competences and unique expertise. Its presence on the Chemelot Campus furthermore offers opportunities for open innovation, thanks to the proximity of other companies, many of them start-ups, research and education institutes.