IFF and DTU sign Corporate Partnership agreement

DTU, one of the world’s leading universities in biotechnology and applied microbiology, will work closely with IFF, which—after a merger with DuPont Nutrition & Biosciences—has become a global industry leader in food, beverage, scent, health and biosciences. 

In December 2021, IFF and DTU signed an official three-year Corporate Partnership agreement. Focus of the partnership is on strategically important and multidisciplinary projects with a clear emphasis on future needs for skills and innovative development of ingredients. 

To ensure a good launch of the collaboration, a meeting took place on 11 February between DTU’s President, Anders O. Bjarklev, DTU’s Senior Vice President for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Marianne Thellersen, and Managing Director for IFF in Scandinavia, Flemming Jørgensen. At the meeting, the direction and the format for the collaboration were established.

“The purpose of embarking on this strategic partnership with DTU is a desire to be close to cutting-edge science and to help shape future talent. Our business model centers on creativity and science, and creating essential solutions for a better world, so we are very excited for the opportunity to collaborate with DTU - one of the world’s most highly credited universities. We are especially looking forward to collaborating on the optimization of processes, energy and sustainability,” Flemming Jørgensen says.

The main activities of the partnership will primarily be digitalization of operations and production, as well as development of ingredients with an emphasis on sustainability, health and safety. To ensure good coordination in the partnership, IFF will get a Key Account Manager at DTU, who will secure flow and progress in the collaboration. The top management of IFF and DTU will also meet once a year to discuss the status and the direction for the coming year.

“We are happy that we at DTU can facilitate a good and close collaboration with the industry to ensure application of our research for the benefit of our society. With a Corporate Partnership, we hope that along with IFF we can create innovation that will raise the bar in the area of sustainable ingredients for use by the food sector among others,” says Anders O. Bjarklev.

IFF and DTU both see great potential for the new partnership to lead to more collaborations on innovation. This is an opportunity to solve the more complex challenges facing the industry, especially in regards to production and product development.

For more information on DTU Corporate Partnerships go to: Become a DTU Corporate Partner - DTU Industrial Partnerships.

Caption: DTU Senior Vice President for Innovation and Entrepreneurship Marianne Thellersen, General Manager for IFF in Scandinavia Flemming Jørgensen and DTU President Anders Overgaard Bjarklev at the start up meeting of the three year Corporate Partnership between DTU og IFF.