Saint-Gobain inks R&D tie-up with IIT-M

Saint-Gobain Recherche, the research and development wing of the French glass and construction materials manufacturer, has struck a research partnership — a joint development agreement — with the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IITM).

For Saint-Gobain, which has set up two plants in India, and is on its way to the third in Rajasthan, this a first and is strategic in India, after its alliances with University of Harvard, University of Sao Paulo, Moscow State University and ESPCI, Paris.

“IIT-M was chosen for our partnership after two years of deliberation, which is pretty fast for the French,” said Saint Gobain Sekurit India managing director Sreeram Srinivasan. With an annual R&D budget of Euro 400 million, Saint-Gobain is clear that the research it initiates and sponsors in IITM would be directly related to its product line and will be aimed at long term benefits for the company. Each of those research projects would amount to anywhere between a few lakhs to a crore, in rupees.

The research projects would centre around high performance materials, flat glass and building products, especially photovoltaics (used in solar cells) for green buildings, as those are Saint-Gobain’s main product lines, after its building materials distribution business which contributes to 41% of its sales.

“The researchers at IITM will get to use our $ 400 million green field facility at Sriperumbudur to test their ideas and approach, while we would get to hire post-doctoral students and PhDs at the best levels,” said Saint-Gobain Glass India MD B Santhanam. The first research project, on synthesis and characterisation of thin film materials has been approved. The company aims to get at least three other projects on similar topics, going by 2009.

According to IITM’s IC & SR (industrial collaboration and sponsored research) rules, the patents for the innovations would be on a 50-50 ownership basis between IITM and Saint-Gobain. The company can buy its right of exclusivity from the institute provided it uses the innovation in a given period of time.