- Our international Innovation Headquarters in Linz strengthens our leadership position as a strong partner in innovation, with comprehensive know-how in the development of value creating solutions - explains Mark Garrett, Borealis Chief Executive. - In Linz, we offer our customers direct access to cutting-edge plastic processing equipment, the expertise of international specialists and scientists, and years of experience in the field of process and product development, at one single site.
- Our success and the success of our customers depend directly on our ability to introduce new and innovative products to the market faster and to adapt them specifically to our customers’ requirements - says Alfred Stern, Senior Vice President Innovation & Technology. - The Innovation Headquarters in Linz creates the best possible foundation for this. Experts from all business areas are able to cooperate with customers and researchers in order to develop plastic materials of the future by using cutting-edge technology.
Along with the investment in the new Innovation Headquarters, Borealis together with its shareholder OMV supports the new Plastics Engineering programme at the Johannes Kepler University in Linz. More than 100 students are already enrolled for the winter term 2009/10, with 25% of the students being women. The new programme is aimed at meeting the demand of the Upper Austrian plastics industry for young researchers in the years to come.
- Upper Austria aims to position itself as a region with extraordinarily high innovation capabilities. Therefore, Borealis with its international Innovation Headquarters is a significant industrial partner to help boost our innovation capabilities. Federal and state authorities as well as the industry have secured the funding of the Plastics Engineering programme in Linz in a joint – and, above all, fast – effort. The state of Upper Austria provided a total of EUR 7 million for the expansion, with around EUR 4.1 million being contributed by fifteen companies of the regional plastics industry – says Governor Josef Pühringer. “If we all pull together, we can make a great difference. Upper Austria is on the right track in order to maintain its status as a number one region in Europe.
In addition to the international Innovation Headquarters in Linz Borealis operates innovation centres in Stenungsund, Sweden, and Porvoo, Finland. A new innovation centre is currently being built in Abu Dhabi by Borealis’ joint venture Borouge.
