2 June, 2026 16:47:19 IST 
UK-based consumer goods major Unilever is building a new Global Innovation Centre in New Haven, Connecticut (US), that will place advanced ingredients and formulation research at the heart of its personal care, beauty, and wellbeing businesses. Opening by spring 2029, the facility will invest $270-mn over the long term, including $50-mn in capital expenditure, with combined public and private funding exceeding $300-mn. It builds on nearly $15-bn Unilever has invested in its US business over the past decade.
The digital-first, AI-powered facility will serve as Unilever’s primary R&D hub for personal care, beauty, and wellbeing businesses in the US and globally, housing around 300 employees. It will succeed the company’s existing R&D facility in Trumbull, Connecticut, which has operated since 1972.
“The centre will advance how Unilever’s teams of scientists and experts push the boundaries of the fundamental differentiators that make the company’s brands distinct and products desirable: superior science, aesthetics and sensorials. It will enable faster scaling of product development via AI capabilities and enhance partnerships via access to leading biosciences and emerging quantum ecosystem of talent, academia, technology partners and consumers,” said a company press note.
The centre places Unilever’s R&D within the New Haven biosciences ecosystem of world-class universities and companies, giving its scientists access to latest advances in skin biology, the microbiome, and the skin-brain axis. The centre will enhance Unilever scientists’ use of neuroscience to create the next generation of desirable products, connecting sensory attributes like texture, fragrance and bioactives with emotional, behavioural and wellness responses. A dedicated polycultural skin and hair centre of excellence will develop ingredients addressing unmet consumer needs, while a human performance lab will generate data on human physiology to drive formulation of ingestibles and wellbeing products. The Unilever Fragrance House will bring perfumers, chemists, and packaging designers together from the earliest stages of ingredient and product development.
All R&D capabilities — formulation, fragrance creation, packaging design, and consumer insights — will be housed under one roof, supported by AI and emerging quantum computing tools aimed at accelerating advanced materials discovery.
“Behind every Unilever product is world-leading science that delivers superior performance, combined with design, fragrance and sensory experiences that make our brands distinctive. Our new Global Innovation Centre will bring these capabilities together to develop new, category-defining innovations in the US, and scale globally,” said Mr. Richard Slater, Chief R&D Officer, Unilever.
“New Haven gets us to the future faster. Our Global Innovation Centre is where we’ll innovate at the intersection of science, technology and culture — for the US and for the world,” said Mr. Herrish Patel, President, Unilever USA and CEO, Personal Care North America.
“The real shift here is integration and speed: science, design and sensorials working as one, with AI and partnerships accelerating every stage of innovation,” added Mr. Slater.
