Nestle S.A.: Research Centre Asia to expand

Vevey / CH. (nsa) Swiss Nestle S.A. has extended its strategic innovation partnership with the Singapore Government’s Agency for Science Technology and Research (A*STAR) to provide a new base for Nestle’s regional centre for research with a strong focus on Healthy Ageing. The Nestle Research Centre Asia will concentrate on supporting the unmet nutritional needs of Asia’s growing older population. The expansion of the partnership will create an estimated 25 new full time jobs in Singapore over the next 3 to 5 years.

Longer life expectancy and a marked decline in fertility rates have resulted in a rapidly ageing global population, with significant economic, healthcare and societal repercussions. In particular, Asia’s ageing population is expected to reach 1.2 billion and account for 60 percent of the world’s population of older people by 2050.

Nestle has identified a strategic need for a research footprint within Asia to study the role of nutrition and early development in health and disease, so as to better address the needs of the region’s ageing population.

NRC Asia’s strong focus on Healthy Ageing leverages Singapore’s strong biomedical research capabilities and diverse ethnic population to enrich the well-being, health and longevity of Asia’s aged. The regional insights gleaned on geriatric nutrition could also lead to nutritional interventions across the globe.

Furthering a longstanding relationship

The establishment of NRC Asia builds on the success of Nestle’s strategic innovation partnership with A*STAR, Singapore’s lead public sector research agency driving economic-oriented research. The origins of Nestle’s partnership with A*STAR date back to 2011, when NRC began collaborative projects in clinical nutrition research with A*STAR’s Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences (SICS).

Since then, the partnership has gone from strength to strength, giving Nestle the confidence to anchor NRC Asia in Singapore. NRC Asia’s scope of research encompasses both new and existing platforms which have been jointly developed with A*STAR.

For Nestle, the appeal of A*STAR comes from its spectrum of research capabilities and ability to integrate these expertise together with that of the wider innovation ecosystem in Singapore.

Since the signing of a Framework Research Agreement with A*STAR in Jan 2014, Nestle Research has set up strategic platforms around food science and technology, materials science and packaging, nutrition, health and behaviour.

The collaboration will also increasingly expand on bio-transformation – the use of natural processes, such as fermentation, to transform raw materials into ingredients with nutritional or functional benefits.

Yielding positive results

The ongoing research collaborations between both partners are already delivering impactful outcomes. An example is a project to improve the sustainable use of raw materials, such as barley, in Nestle’s malt extract production. A team from Nestle, and A*STAR’s Institute of Chemical and Engineering Sciences (ICES) and Bio-processing Technology Institute (BTI) have achieved break-through results in Nestle’s malt extraction process. The result: the sustainability of Nestle’s malt extraction facility in Singapore has been boosted, furthering Nestle’s commitment to environmental sustainability.