Chemical Development

SuperO'B

Hi there,

I have an idea for a new product development which would be a new type of chemical cleaning agent for a special type of grease I use at work.

I have no chemistry background however so does anyone have any suggestions for companies or other means for going about the R & D for a new product like this?

antoinolachtnai

Chemical Engineering's not my area either, but here is one way you could go about it:

1. You can do the commercial research, i.e., find what products are currently used and why. This might tell you whether the idea is any good, and might give some clues about the technology. You really need to search high and low to find out if there is somebody doing what you want to do, or somebody who tried it before. You need to talk to a lot of people to do this.

Then,

2. You get a university on board, with an 'innovation voucher'. This is a scheme Enterprise Ireland runs (or at least, used to run) to give SMEs inexpensive access to university level research. It won't get you all the answers, but it would open up the science side for you and give you an idea of who you could deal with to move the plan forward (if it still makes sense).

After that is done, I think a commercial partner would emerge and you would be in some sort of position of knowledge. This is a difficult negotiation, to make sure you don't just get crushed by the commercial partner. There are various ways you could go about this, but the more you know, and the more advanced you are, the less difficult it is.