Evonik launches Innovation Factory to accelerate market-ready innovations

Realignment and objectives

Evonik has reorganised its Research, Development & Innovation (RD&I) to focus on market-driven development, faster execution and greater resilience to volatile raw-material markets, technological disruption and geopolitical risk. The new Evonik Innovation Factory — evolved from Creavis — is central to this shift and is expected to contribute up to €300 million to the company’s innovation-area revenue by 2032.

Organisation and targets

About two-thirds of researchers will be embedded directly in business lines to develop customer-linked solutions with clear economic accountability, while centrally managed research will remain for capabilities that span businesses and for long-term projects. Evonik expects roughly €1.5 billion of additional revenue in its three innovation growth areas by 2032.

How the Innovation Factory accelerates projects

The Factory will run five to seven programmes targeting bio-based solutions, the energy transition and the circular economy, with a stated average market-readiness target of five years. Acceleration levers are combinatorial innovation — integrating technologies, capabilities and partners — and starting from existing internal and external knowledge to shorten development timelines and improve predictability.

Funding and footprint

R&D intensity held at about 3% of revenue in 2025, equating to roughly €418 million (2024: €459 million); ~82% of R&D funds go to business-driven development and ~15% to longer-term projects. Evonik also reports that 48% of revenue now comes from products with above-average sustainability benefits, up three percentage points from 2024, and says it is aligning innovation, application and production more closely to regional markets and ecosystems.