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Priority to innovation
Innovation is the process by which an enterprise converts the creativity of its employees and partners into added value, faster and better than its competitors.
The Executive Committee announced three major challenges for 2009 :
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Growth
30 % of our revenue should be from products, markets and applications created over the past five years.
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Partnership
50 % of innovative projects should be undertaken in interaction with players from outside the Group (customers, universities, authorities, suppliers, start-ups etc.)
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Innovation is everyone’s business
Every Group entity should be involved in at least one officially recognized innovative project.
Key initiatives
The innovation drive is progressing very actively within the Solvay Group and is bearing fruit.
Some illustrations :
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Start-ups in Research & Development Centers
Solvay creates incubator for innovative Start-ups in its research and technology centre in Brussels [Press Release]
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To support a part of its strategy - anchored in a more than 140 year-old tradition - Solvay has decided to encourage research and development entrepreneurship by opening the Group's largest Research and Development Center to start-ups : Solvay Research & Technology, in Brussels, Belgium.
Downloads :
Brochure FR – EN (PDF 1100 KB); Leaflet FR – EN (PDF 215 KB)
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Solvay is Solar Impulse’s technological partner : More
Solvay Solar Impulse partnership: Innovation from a leading industrial group serving sustainable development and state-of-the-art technologies [ Press Release]
Visit the Solar Impulse website.
New Business Development
At the heart of this Innovation process is the “New Business Development” organisation, assigned the task of managing new risk projects outside the Strategic Business Units’ defined fields of activity, and exploiting, validating and implementing new technologies, new products and new applications.
“New Business Development” is the Group’s third largest Research budget, after those of the Pharmaceuticals Sector and of Specialty Polymers.
Shared challenges : Solvay Innovation Trophy
Innovation includes coming up with new concepts, methods and tools to ensure the success of the Business Units’ activities and also provide greater support for these activities. Successful innovation is honoured by “Innovation Trophies”, awarded at regular intervals to individuals or teams from all units putting forward the most innovative and promising projects.
The fourth “Solvay Innovation Trophy”, organized in 2006, expresses the Group’s total commitment to the following process : to involve all employees in implementing our strategy for growth, sustained by Innovation and Competitiveness.
 The 2006’s competition featured:
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An excellent harvest: between 2003 and 2006, the number of projects collected has risen remarkably.
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Quantity and Quality: of the 312 projects collected, involving 1 381 employees, after hotly-disputed elimination rounds, just 96 (after a second pre-selection round) are competing in the six categories of the 2006 Trophy.
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Six project categories: New Business, Customer-Oriented Projects, Performance Improvement, Management Improvement, Sustainable Development and Citizenship, Transposable Innovations.
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Group-wide participation
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A panel of judges of 8 internal members and 6 outside personalities.
The fourth Solvay Innovation Trophy 2006 Award Ceremony was held in Brussels on December 20th, 2006 [Press Release]
Prize list of Innovation Trophy 2006
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New Business
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Customer-Oriented Projects
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Performance Improvement
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Management Improvement
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Sustainable Development and Citizenship
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Replicated Innovations
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Partnership Prize
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Executive Committee Prize
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