Innovation and the skills of our employees form the basis for our success as a company. We drive innovation by continuously developing new molecules, technologies and business models in our research centers, investing in research and development projects, supporting the development of our employees and expanding our activities through acquisitions or collaborations with external partners. Strengthening our innovative capability enables us to address the challenges of our time and achieve profitable corporate growth.
Our collaborations and alliances with leading universities, public research institutes and partner companies are supplemented by incubators, crowdsourcing and science hubs in Asia and the United States to tap into external innovative potential using the open innovation approach. Some of our collaborations are supported by public funding.
Bayer is the only global company simultaneously researching improvements in human, animal and plant health. Systematic and intensive collaboration among researchers from both Life Science subgroups is providing new impetus. In this context, researchers are collaborating on projects involving central biological processes such as gene regulation or energy metabolism. Such projects are aimed at developing a better understanding of diseases, deciphering mechanisms of action, personalizing therapies or explaining resistance mechanisms. The joint use of technology platforms is being expanded. These projects have been supported since 2012 by Bayer’s internal “Life Sciences Fund” and are mostly implemented together with external partners.
Reliable, global protection of intellectual property rights is essential for an innovation company like Bayer. 2015, we owned approximately 66,700 valid patent applications and patents worldwide relating to some 7,200 protected inventions.
