Innovation drive
Unleash your ideas
Solvay people are innovators. Join us and participate in the constant reinvention of a 160 year-old business. Meet changing customer requirements, create new markets and, most importantly, take on major societal challenges such as depleting resources, food scarcity and climate change.
There is no future without chemistry, just like there is no future for the chemical industry without people willing to learn, unlearn and relearn. If that’s how you approach your professional career, then you’ll fit right in.
What makes a Solvay innovator?
You believe there is no future without industry and want to seize the opportunity to change it from the inside.
You believe in a carbon-neutral, circular economy that advances humanity without damaging our environment.
You like to keep an eye on and anticipate market trends.
You have a passion for science and the opportunities it brings.
You’re a tech and digitalization enthusiast.
To be in contact with scientists, to become in a small way a scientist myself if possible, perhaps to cast new light on physical phenomena, to be able to uncover what is real and definitive, was my life's great dream.
Celebrate science in all its forms
Beyond our own innovations and our partnerships with universities and industry partners, we like to keep an eye on all breakthroughs that could improve the lives of future generations. This is what the Solvay Prize is about: acknowledging major scientific discoveries and supporting innovators even beyond our walls.
Get to work with our academic partners
Solvay’s researchers work in close cooperation with academic labs across the world. Our common goal: accelerate innovation while reducing time to market. As a member of our research and innovation teams, you may get to work with prestigious partners such as Harvard University, Imperial College London, CNRS, and more.
Join our innovation heroes
Solvay is at a turning point in its history. The creation of two strong industry leaders in 2023 and efforts to meet our sustainability targets by 2030 call upon our brightest minds to be more creative than ever before. Meet some of them as they present what they’ve been working on.
“I get to learn about farmer habits and cultural practices in India, while having a positive impact on environment and society”
Chloe has been working at Solvay for over 13 years, climbing her way up from Research Scientist specializing in home and personal care to Sustainability Manager at Solvay Novecare Global Business Unit.
Her current role is particularly enriching. “I’m now in charge of the implementation of the Sustainable Guar Initiative launched by Solvay in 2015. Guar is a vegetable we use to create sustainable products for personal care, agriculture, etc. With this initiative, we’ve been encouraging sustainable guar farming practices and improving the lives of over 11,000 Indian farmers.”
As Sustainability Manager, Chloe gets to design sustainability programs and ensure that they deliver on their ambitions. She promotes them and hopes to inspire similar initiatives among customers. “It is very enriching to work on such a project, linked to different business models and cultures. It is a way to improve my adaptation and communication capabilities while having a positive impact on the environment and society. Every day, I get to help secure and expand Solvay businesses, and I contribute to positioning the Group as a key actor of responsible sourcing.”
“The Citizen Day is a great opportunity to connect with local communities”
Marie-Hélène is an ecotoxicologist who recently became Head of Better Life and Sustainable Development at Solvay. Biodiversity loss has always been a major concern for her. When she was offered to help steer the Citizen Day 2021 on Biodiversity, she immediately said yes. “My role was to help organize conferences, provide supporting information to our communications teams and suggest ideas of activities. It was a great opportunity to inform our colleagues on Solvay’s ambitions.”
With over 500 biodiversity actions across the world, the event was a huge success. “Attendance exceeded our expectations, with many volunteers displaying expertise in biodiversity and nature and willing to share their expertise. Some employees realized they could play a role both in their professional and personal life,” Marie-Hélène explains.
Besides highlighting and promoting existing Solvay initiatives to protect biodiversity, Citizen Day 2021 also helped boost new ideas and raise the bar of Solvay’s ambitions in biodiversity.
“We’re enabling ‘augmented researchers’ thanks to digital products”
From researcher in chemistry to digital innovator, there is but one step. This is perhaps Laurianne’s main takeaway from her experience working on Solvay’s Datagrow project. “Datagrow takes 45 years of research expertise in agrochemical formulations and centralizes it into a single web application. We’re making a real difference in the acceleration of Solvay’s innovation,” she enthuses.
As Product Owner, Laurianne could lead the Datagrow development team and learn how to bridge the two worlds of chemical research and digitalization. “Chemists and digital people do not speak the same language, but we have to understand each other to develop powerful tools and advanced data science algorithms for researchers,” she explains. “With Datagrow, developing agrochemical formulations will be less time intensive, and our researchers will be able to focus on emerging markets like biocontrol.”
The Datagrow application is continuously maintained and improved through regular upgrades.