Anglo-Dutch consumer goods giant Unilever has signed a strategic research agreement with the University of Nottingham.
The agreement will see Unilever exploring new research with the university in areas such as consumer psychology, green processing, and energy and sustainability.
“To continue to be successful and innovate we strongly believe that we need to collaborate with the very best partners. We are confident that our partnership with the University of Nottingham will enable us to do this,” said Unilever’s Professor Jim Crilly, Senior Vice President of the company’s Strategic Science Group (SSG).
“Nottingham is world class institution close to the Unilever research hubs in the UK and importantly has an impressive geographic reach with campuses in China and Malaysia which is important for us as over half of our revenue is generated in emerging markets.”
Professor Crilly leads Unilever’s large R&D operation in the UK through the SSG and was last year appointed as an Honorary Professor of Food Technology at Nottingham’s School of Bioscience.
Vice-Chancellor of Nottingham University Professor David Greenaway said: “The framework agreement marks the start of a new phase in our relationship and we are looking forward to undertaking some very exciting research with Unilever over the coming years.”
Unilever is known around the world as the manufacturer of household names such as Persil, Domestos, Lynx, Vaseline, PG Tips and Hellmann’s and many more.
“We worked closely with Unilever to determine their requirements”, said Chris Rudd, pro-vice-chancellor for knowledge transfer at Nottingham, “after discussions with academics across the university, we were able to offer a defined package of research support in a wide range of sectors to meet the company’s specific needs.”
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