Croda International Plc who create, make and sell innovative and sustainable speciality chemicals, has announced the opening of their Centre of Innovation for Formulation Science at the University of Liverpool’s new Materials Innovation Factory (MIF).

The investment in a permanent laboratory facility at the MIF will enable Croda to utilise state-of-the-art automated technologies to further enhance their formulation science knowledge and capability across all their market sectors.

The capabilities available at the MIF will allow Croda to gain a more detailed understanding of ingredient interactions, actives delivery and optimised formulation development for any given application, through design of experiment, faster robotic formulating platforms, high-throughput analytical testing and advanced data analysis.  This will also allow them to better exploit the functionality of existing and new products in a wider range of formulation systems, giving their customers greater choice of innovative formulations.

Dr Surinder Chahal, Global Vice President Long Term Innovation for Personal Care at Croda said: “This is a hugely exciting time for us; access to the cutting-edge capability at the MIF will allow us to further enhance our reputation in innovative formulation by adopting high-throughput technologies and computer aided materials science to fully realise the potential of our existing and future products, as well as enabling us to develop new ways to meet consumer needs in fast moving marketplaces.”

The MIF is a unique facility that has been supported through a public/private partnership between the University of Liverpool, Unilever, and the Higher Education Funding Council for England, as part of the UK Government’s Research Partnership Investment Fund.