Evonik Industries, one of the largest chemical producers in Germany, is reorganizing its research and development (R&D) activities with the aim of making the firm faster at bringing innovations—especially those relating to biotech, the circular economy, and the green energy transition—to market.
Under the reorganization, two-thirds of its researchers have been repositioned to work directly with Evonik’s business lines and the firm’s customers. Until Dec. 31, all researchers had been consolidated in the company’s central R&D hub. Additionally, its researchers are to become economically accountable.
By 2032 the revamp will yield additional annual sales from new products of up to $350 million, Lauren Kjeldsen, Evonik’s board member for innovation, told journalists at a June 10 press conference at the company’s headquarters in Essen, Germany. Its goal is for research projects to be market ready in 5 years on average. To increase its resilience to geopolitical risks—such as the Iran war—Evonik is also establishing product development centers closer to its customers, Kjeldsen said.
Despite seeking to drive its R&D harder, the company plans to spend about $485 million on R&D this year, roughly the same as it spent in 2025. About 82% of the money from this year’s budget will be allocated directly to “business-driven development”; the remainder will go to long-term innovation projects, executives said.
Evonik’s chief innovation officer, Christian Eilbracht, told journalists that the company has “deliberately aligned our innovation organization for speed and impact. By clearly allocating responsibilities, we are accelerating decision-making processes and increasing the likelihood of success for innovations.”
Eilbracht expects Evonik to accelerate its R&D primarily through two mechanisms: working more closely with partners and requiring researchers to build on existing knowledge to shortcut the innovation process. “Together, these approaches significantly shorten development timelines, improve the predictability of commercial success, and strengthen Evonik’s resilience to sudden market disruptions,” Eilbracht said.
Artificial intelligence will assist the company in attaining its new R&D goals but will not result in R&D job cuts, he said.
Evonik will run five to seven research programs deemed to be strategically important in the fields of biotech, the circular economy, and the energy transition within its recently formed R&D incubator hub, the Innovation Factory.
When it comes to new biotech products, the company is bullish on Ecobiol PRO, a probiotic for boosting the health of poultry and other animals without antibiotics. For the circular economy, Evonik says it is developing catalysts and adsorbents for the removal of chlorine and other contaminants in pyrolysis oil derived from the chemical recycling of plastic waste. And in the field of the green energy transition, the company has just opened a pilot facility in Marl, Germany, for making a polymer membrane for electrolyzers that split water into hydrogen and oxygen.
Although Evonik is confident about the prospects for its R&D pipeline, the company has been experiencing a weak financial performance from its current products and is in its third year of a 3-year cost-cutting program that will eliminate more than 1,000 of its 31,000 employees. Evonik’s net profit of $144 million for the first quarter of this year is about half what it was in the same period a year ago. Sales in the first quarter were down 9% to $3.95 billion.
