How We Work / Partnering

Collaborating with academia

We firmly support the intensive collaboration between industry and academia. Both groups have an important role in taking fundamental research and applying it in a way that has most relevance for society. At Danone Research & Innovation, we collaborate with an international network of academic partners as well as well-known international scientists. We sustain some of our closest collaborations through our professorships.

Supporting intensive collaborations between industry and academia.

Utrecht University

The collaboration between Danone Research & Innovation and Utrecht Institute for Pharmaceutical Sciences (UIPS), part of Utrecht University, the Netherlands, has led to a continuous stream of scientific articles and presentations at scientific conferences, as well as a professorship. Prof. dr. Johan Garssen (Professor Immunopharmacology at the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Utrecht University) is the Director of the Immunology Platform at Danone Research & Innovation and is heading immunity research programmes, focusing on prevention and treatment of immune-mediated diseases, including allergy and inflammation.

Learn more about Immunology here.

Wageningen University

Danone Research & Innovation has a long-standing collaboration with Wageningen University and Research in the Netherlands. This partnership is embodied by Prof. dr. Jan Knol (Professor Intestinal Microbiology of Early Life at the Laboratory of Microbiology, Wageningen University). As Director of the Gut Biology and Microbiology Platform at Danone Research & Innovation, he heads the gut and microbiology-related research programmes that aim to identify opportunities of influencing health through nutrition in early life and later life. These programmes focus on the complex interplay between nutrition and the early programming of the digestive system in infants and toddlers, as well as the specific needs of a challenged gastrointestinal system.

Learn more about Gut & Microbiology here.