Public and Private Partnerships | Nestlé

At Nestlé we enable healthier and happier lives for individuals and families by building, sharing and applying nutrition knowledge. We have one of the industry’s largest research and development capabilities, and through this we also engage with a wide range of academic institutions and public organisations. These partnerships help us widen our scope: generating new ideas, improving the nutritional value of our foods and beverages, addressing key public health challenges and much more.

From hosting PhD students at our research institutes to participating in joint research projects, our collaborations are varied. They help us, and our partners, deepen our knowledge, access different skills, build and transfer new technologies, and leverage insights that not only benefit our organisations, but also the wider communities in which we work.

We published the Nestlé Policy on Public–Private Science & Research Partnerships in March 2017. This applies to all partnerships with academic institutions and public organisations, above CHF 100 000, involving Nestlé Research & Development globally. It promotes academic freedom and neutrality, ethics and integrity. It is designed to ensure that:

• All researchers are free to work and publish their conclusions according to best practices in academic research;
• Accurate methodologies are used;
• The replicability and reliability of results can be demonstrated; and
• All research-based claims are truthful and not misleading to consumers.

Committed to transparency

We commit to communicating our main research priorities, partnerships and financial contributions in a timely manner, and we expect our partners to disclose their collaborations with us once their results are published.

Some of our key partnerships

Imperial College London

The research partnership between Nestlé Research and Imperial College London will focus on the science of nutrition. This partnership will focus on a number of areas including the workings of gut bacteria (known as the ‘microbiome’).
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A*STAR

Nestlé has extended its partnership with the Singapore Government’s Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) to provide a new base for the company’s regional centre for research.
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EpiGen Consortium

Nestlé has invested in a research partnership with the EpiGen Consortium, an alliance of researchers at institutions in Southampton, Auckland and Singapore. The partnership explores epigenetics, the science of how nutrition and dietary habits affect how our genes are expressed. Through such research, we may be able to help future generations start healthier, and stay healthier for longer.