en.Wedoany.com Reported - German specialty chemicals company Evonik Industries has announced a fundamental restructuring of its Research, Development & Innovation (RD&I) organization to address industry environmental changes driven by raw material market volatility, technological shifts, and geopolitical risks. The core of this adjustment is the establishment of a new entity called the "Evonik Innovation Factory," developed from the previous Creavis division, which aims to contribute up to €300 million in revenue growth to the innovation growth cores by 2032.
Lauren Kjeldsen, Head of Innovation at Evonik, stated that in the current market environment, companies must rethink how they operate, innovate, grow, and remain successful. By focusing on innovation, they can enhance their resilience while also getting closer to customers. In the future, approximately two-thirds of researchers will work directly within the Business Lines, engaging closely with customers and assuming clear economic responsibility; meanwhile, R&D capabilities and long-term innovation projects that benefit multiple business areas will continue to be centrally managed.
Christian Eilbracht, Chief Innovation Officer at Evonik, pointed out that the restructured innovation organization emphasizes speed and effectiveness, with clear division of labor accelerating decision-making processes and increasing the probability of innovation success. The Evonik Innovation Factory will integrate and accelerate strategically important development projects, aiming to bring projects to market maturity within an average of five years. This is achieved through two mechanisms: first, combinatorial innovation, which purposefully links technologies, capabilities, and internal and external partners along the value chain; second, researchers selectively utilize existing internal and external knowledge and initiate projects at later stages of the innovation process. The combination of both aims to shorten development time, make commercial success more predictable, and enhance the company's resilience to sudden market disruptions.
Currently, five to seven projects in the Innovation Factory focus on Evonik's three major innovation growth cores: bio-based solutions, the energy transition, and the circular economy. Evonik expects these cores to generate total additional revenue of approximately €1.5 billion by 2032, with the Innovation Factory contributing up to €300 million.
Despite challenging economic and geopolitical conditions, Evonik's investment in innovation has not diminished. In 2025, the R&D spending ratio remained stable year-on-year at approximately 3% of revenue, amounting to around €418 million (compared to €459 million in 2024). Of this, about 82% of funds are directly allocated to business-near development, while another 15% is used for long-term innovation projects. At the same time, Evonik is expanding its sustainable solutions portfolio; currently, approximately 48% of the company's revenue comes from products with superior sustainability benefits. The share of these Next Generation Solutions increased by 3 percentage points from 2024 to 2025. To this end, Evonik continues to invest in expanding its international business, positioning innovation, application, and production in regions with market growth and favorable ecosystems, committed to making industrial value chains more resilient and establishing more sustainable solutions.
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