Innovative Environmental Science & Technologies

Objective

There are two overall objectives for this work: to have the knowledge to be able to deal with the environmental problems that will be encountered by the chemical industry in 3 - 5 years time, and to enable the science underpinning the regulation of products and manufacturing processes to be influenced in order to improve their cost effectiveness

Management

75% of the activity is devoted to a small number of major research areas. These, typically, run for several years and may then, following discussion, be extended into further phases. The costs of individual programmes are usually substantial and such projects are only pursued after extensive discussion.

The remaining 25% of the activity is devoted to exploratory research normally in conjunction with academic institutes. Exploratory projects are initial investigations in areas where it is felt that further research work might be justified. Their purpose is to explore and define new areas that may be of relevance to the business.

The majority of the programme is operated in ways designed to maximise the intellectual and financial leverage and thus most of the projects are jointly sponsored and involve external collaborators. Overall financial leverage is high, with $4 out of every $5 spent arising coming from outside AstraZeneca.

Current major programmes in progress: