Borealis invests in Symyx innovation software and tools

Vienna - Polymer company Borealis has entered an agreement with Symyx, which is to provide software and modular workflows to help maximise return on R&D investments and improve its high-throughput experimentation capabilities. Implementation is scheduled for completion by the end of 2009.

Borealis is currently investing "substantially" in its Innovation Centres in Austria, Finland and Sweden as well as at the group's Borstar pilot plant in Schwechat, Austria. The goal, it said, is to improve its innovation capability in the polyolefins and base chemical industries.

The deal includes the implementation of Symyx Software to support both highthroughput research and conventional research methodologies and delivery of a Symyx Tools Parallel Pressure Reactor workflow for the Innovation Centre in Porvoo (Finland). It also covers a joint technology development programme for a polymer development system at the Innovation Centre in Linz, Austria.

"The deal "supports our asset investments in improving our innovation capability. It helps us shorten the time it takes for us to bring new products onto the market," said Wim Roels, Borealis vice president fo Innovation and Technology, in a 17 Oct company statement.