Welcome Saint-Gobain

For an initial period of one year, a contract has been signed with five companies of the Saint-Gobain Group, the Saint-Gobain Weber GmbH, the SAINT-GOBAIN ISOVER G+H AG, the Saint-Gobain Rigips GmbH as well as with NOVA by Saint-Gobain and Saint-Gobain Research Germany. Prior to this, RWTH Aachen and the French business group Saint-Gobain had already collaborated on various projects. The new strategic partnership aims to intensify the existing cooperation and to merge synergies. Within the new key account partnership, the RWTH Innovation GmbH will support the company as a central scientific transfer unit at the university and beyond.

Saint-Gobain is a globally active business group headquartered in Paris with more than 170,000 employees in 68 countries. The company develops, produces and sells materials which are used in buildings, transportation, infrastructure and numerous industrial applications. They provide comfort, performance and safety, while at the same time addressing the challenges of sustainable construction, efficient use of resources, and climate change.

Cooperation in three areas

In the field of research and development (R&D) the company aims to solve technical challenges together with the scientific expertise of RWTH Aachen. In addition, startups from RWTH shall be brought together with the company. And finally, Saint-Gobain supports open innovation formats with talents form RWTH Aachen and the consolidation of its own brand name in the context of the partnership.

To launch the collaboration, a first kick-off event took place in February 2020 on the premises of the RWTH Innovation. Employees from all five companies of the Saint-Gobain Group were present and first concrete measures were developed for the coming months. Among other things, specific questions were identified in the areas of future mobility, novel construction materials, recycling of construction materials and simulation of construction physics.

The RWTH Innovation is now examining, which of these challenges can be solved by Saint-Gobain at RWTH Aachen University and its ecosystem. Furthermore, the RWTH Innovation will organize a student techathon in November 2020.

In addition, future-oriented startups from the RWTH ecosystem, which are of interest to Saint-Gobain, are currently being identified and scouted for a potential cooperation.