Science and Innovation in the Cosmetics Industry

The workshop entitled “Science and innovation: elements for competitiveness in cosmetics” was recently organized and held by IQS Tech Transfer and the Beauty Cluster. The event was warmly welcomed by companies in the field, and the key role that innovation plays in the sector’s competitiveness was highlighted, especially with regards to today’s challenging times.

Thanks to its extensive knowledge and experience in cosmetics-related areas such as the use of enzymes and photoprotection, among others, in addition to its longstanding work in technology transfer to industry, IQS has great potential as a partner for companies in the cosmetics sector to help them develop competitive innovation tools, as reflected in the welcome speech for the event presented by Dr Salvador Borrós, Director of IQS.

Members of the Beauty Cluster also attended the event, including: Iván Borrego, general manager of the Cluster, and Marisa Ferré, innovation specialist.

“What does innovation within a company mean?” This was the question that kicked off the event, posed by Enric Bayó, Manager of Innovation and Business Models with the Strategic Business Unit of ACCIÓ, for whom the practical theorization of innovation involves understanding a company’s competitive advantages and overcoming possible technological, product, service, and equipment imitations.

Then, Dr Pascual Cuadrado, Chief Scientific Officer of RNB Cosmetics, highlighted the development of R&D as a driver of competitiveness, and presented a case study on the implementation of a new technology in the production of one of its cosmetic products, which was then able to be optimized in terms of production and manufacturing volume.

On behalf of IQS, Dr Santi Nonell, an expert in photobiology, presented some of the advances that the AppLightChem research group at the IQS School of Engineering is making in solar cosmetics. As an example, he talked about photoactivatable cosmetics, which feature a controlled release sun protection index depending on exposure to sunlight and the time of year. This innovative line of photoprotection also represents important benefits in terms of the environment.

Finally, Albert Jané, CEO and co-founder of Vytrus Biotech, spoke about the “three essential innovations in the development of any company or product,” which are scientific innovation, financial innovation, and marketing innovation (messages to share), and presented a case study of his own company.

With the question “Are innovation and R&D central to competitiveness in the cosmetics industry?“, a discussion session was held among all the speakers to conclude the event, which was moderated by Dr Núria Vallmitjana, Director of IQS Tech Transfer.