Dutch chemicals giant AkzoNobel recently launched a first-of-its-kind contest to uncover some of the most promising innovations in chemistry.
Called Imagine Chemistry, the contest is designed to find startups proposing chemicals-based solutions to some of the planet’s most pressing environmental issues and is accepting innovations across five areas:
- Revolutionizing plastics recycling
- Wastewater-free chemical sites
- Cellulose-based alternatives to synthetics
- Bio-based and biodegradable surfactants and thickeners
- Bio-based sources of ethylene
There are also two general categories for the contest:
- Sustainable alternatives to our current technologies
- Highly reactive chemistry & technology
According to Marco Waas, Director RD&I and Technology for AkzoNobel’s industrial chemicals business , the contest isn’t just aimed at finding the next big breakthrough in sustainability, it’s also designed to find an idea with enormous business potential.
“Sustainability is business and business is sustainability,” Waas says. “You see a lot of startups motivated by this.”
The contest will take submissions over the next two months. AkzoNobel is expecting most of the applicants will ideally already have a proof of concept ready and are looking to scale up.
The submissions will be reviewed by 35 experts who will then select 20 entrants to come to the Netherlands, where scientists from AkzoNobel will help the startups enrich and develop their ideas at a three-day event at the company’s Innovation Center. Ultimately, AkzoNobel will select one winner who will enter into a collaboration agreement (although not necessarily an acquisition) with the company.
Even though there can only be one winner, Waas says he envisions that all 20 startups will get something out of the experience and may walk away with a different kind of collaboration agreement.
The effort is already increasing collaboration in the chemistry world more broadly. For the contest, AkzoNobel has set up an online platform that allows users to post ideas and give each other feedback. Just a few days after being launched, Waas says there are already about 400 participants chatting about chemistry on the page — the youngest user is just 8 years old.
Bringing out the best minds in chemistry to meet the world’s challenges is exactly what Waas says the company was going for.
“We need chemistry to move into a more sustainable world,” Waas says.
