Rhodia teams up to build French R&D 'lab of the future'

28 September 2003 11:09  [Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (CNI)--Rhodia has announced a partnership with the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) to build a new research and development (R&D) centre at Pessac, in the Bordeaux region.

A spokeswoman for the French chemicals firm said that construction of the R&D centre would start soon and completion was scheduled for mid-2004. The project cost was not revealed. 

Earlier this year, Rhodia highlighted its research plans for a new R&D centre, which it termed the 'Laboratory of the Future'.

The laboratory will specialise in new R&D methods specifically dedicated to application and process chemistry, such as high-throughput tests combined with advanced data treatment. Rhodia said development of the tools and miniaturisation of experiments would boost the firm’s competitiveness and quality of its research, and help to shorten the time to bring new products to market.

Around 20 new permanent research science positions will be created at the joint Rhodia-CNRS centre. The firm said that other researcher scientists within the Rhodia group, as well as PhD students and post-doctoral researchers from universities, would also be seconded to the centre on temporary assignments.

By: Russell Ong
+44 208 652 3214

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