Bayer: Science For A Better Life - research

Dr. Wolfgang Plischke on the importance and further expansion of research at Bayer:

"Our innovation capability makes the difference"

Dr. Wolfgang Plischke is a member of the Board of Management of Bayer AG. He is responsible for Innovation, Technology and Environment, as well as for the Asia-Pacific region.

Bayer plans to spend €2.8 billion on research and development this year: does this amount guarantee future innovations?
There is no such thing as a guarantee in research. However, our investment is the foundation for turning ideas and inventions into marketable products. It is our innovation capability that often makes the crucial difference in the global arena. For Bayer as an inventor company, this means setting ourselves apart on the market and asserting ourselves through excellence in research and technology and through innovative products.

Which products are you thinking of specifically?
For example, Xarelto from Bayer HealthCare – which is already registered in Europe and Canada – is an outstanding innovation. Thanks to its unique properties, it has the potential to revolutionize thrombosis treatment. Studies have found that it is the fourth-most valuable pharmaceutical development product worldwide.

Is this high level of innovation capability in place in the other subgroups as well?
Absolutely. Our crop protection portfolio at Bayer Crop- Science is the most innovative in the market. And at Bayer MaterialScience, we can claim with pride that we are a technological leader in important production processes.

What role does the Bayer holding company play in this connection?
It has to create the suitable framework conditions. Of course, this includes especially a competitive R&D budget. Furthermore, we have to display excellence in everything we do in order to safeguard our competitiveness. We have made significant progress in this area in recent years…

… on what basis?
It is becoming more challenging every year to bring true innovations to the market. Today this is best achieved through networked activities across all disciplines, tasks and boundaries – and often extending beyond the borders of the company. Of course, there will still be inventions based on the work of one single scientist. Yet it always takes a strong team to turn such inventions into innovations. And this in turn requires outstanding, dedicated and motivated scientists and engineers – which we fortunately have in our company, because Bayer is a respected and attractive employer.

Can we assume from this answer that Bayer in the future will become more open to external partnerships in research matters?
That’s exactly right. Many of our research and scientific activities take place outside of Bayer at universities and research institutes. That’s why it is very important to me to have strong networks as a supplement to our own competencies. We want to achieve this with efficient collaborations and strategic partnerships, as well as through symposiums with external scientists.

Can you already list specific activities as examples of future cooperation forms?
We have already initiated a number of important collaborations this year alone: the agreement with the Center for Integrated Protein Science in Munich; the framework agreement between Bayer HealthCare and Cologne University Hospital; the collaborations with the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science in the field of biotechnology and the Carbon Nanotubes innovation alliance spearheaded by Bayer MaterialScience and Bayer Technology Services – to name just a few examples.

What role does the excellence you emphasized play in this connection?
A crucial role. After all, these collaborations all have one thing in common: our partners are among the world’s leading experts in their respective fields of research. And our researchers are also among the best in the world. I have been able to observe this very clearly on a wide variety of occasions.

But shouldn’t you first concentrate on putting together suitable networks within the company?
First, that has already been happening for quite a while now, and second, the two are not mutually exclusive. It is particularly the advancement and development of scientists across subgroup borders that creates valuable options for the company.

What is the situation with regard to the development of talented young research and development employees?
That is indeed an important question. We work very hard in this area. For example, this is the very reason why we established the “Talent Event”. For this, 30 scientists from the three Bayer subgroups and from Bayer Technology Services were selected by their companies based on their outstanding achievements in research and development and their important contributions to shaping Bayer’s innovation activities worldwide.

What is the aim of the “Talent Event”?
Besides the aspect of personal networking between the researchers, the group in the coming months will develop ideas for making Bayer’s research and development activities more visible to observers outside the company.

The tremendous emphasis being placed on the theme of innovation and thus on the young scientists could create the impression that one factor in particular isn’t as important as it used to be: experience.
That impression is deceiving. On the contrary, we rely particularly on the know-how of our experienced scientists as the foundation for excellent research. We have created the corresponding framework for this with our “Experts Club”. And it is not just important that these experts discuss specific research themes; we would also like to integrate them more intensively into interdisciplinary R&D themes. After all, we should always keep in mind that Bayer has access to a lot of expertise – we just have to exploit it.

Irrespective of the appreciation of experienced employees – at some point they too will leave the company, and there are already forecasts of a dearth of experts that will apply to the research and development activities too.
That’s why talent advancement and recruiting in general are major challenges for industrial research. We know that the natural sciences and technology are not the most popular scholastic disciplines. That’s why we provide extensive support to students of these fields and medicine – when they would like to work on a project outside Germany, for example. We organize post-graduate and post-doctorate workshops for chemists, biologists and engineers. The Bayer Science & Education Foundation awards scientific prizes such as the Otto Bayer Award, the Hansen Family Award and now the Bayer Climate Award as well. Our goal is always to honor and reward significant research activities. As you can see: Bayer has close ties to external research.

Is this also reflected in a flow of talented new graduates from universities?
The number of new hirings among natural scientists and engineers in particular has been increasing significantly for a while now. This too illustrates the importance of science and research in our company. All of this contributes to the fact that we are able to present outstanding innovations – not just today, but in the future as well.