拜耳旨在巩固其在全球害虫防治市场的领先地位。为此，公司已投资约 4500 万欧元建设占地约 11,000 m2 位于蒙海姆基地的温室，毗邻的实验室和办公楼用于杀虫剂研究。
“The new building will help us overcome one of the fundamental challenges of our times: safeguarding the global supply of food,” said Dr. Dirk Backhaus, head of Product Supply and member of the Executive Committee of Bayer’s Crop Science Division, at the inauguration celebration on January 8, which was attended by 50 invited guests and roughly 150 employees. “This greenhouse could have been built anywhere in the world. But Germany has substantial advantages as a location: diverse, sustainable agriculture, a high level of education, and a solid knowledge base as well as being attractively situated in a dynamic European environment,” noted Backhaus. As such, this investment also reflects Bayer’s commitment to the innovative capacity of Europe, Germany, and specifically to the Monheim research site in North Rhine-Westphalia.
The construction of the new greenhouse is Bayer’s largest single project in Monheim in an investment program that has totaled around EUR 170 million over the past six years. Aside from new investments, key elements of the growth strategy for Crop Science include the modernization and targeted expansion of the existing research infrastructure.
In his speech, Backhaus stressed the need for societal support for industrial research. “We are living in times in which populism and political polarization are endangering the acceptance of modern science,” said Backhaus, citing recent emotionally charged campaigns such as the one against important insecticidal substance classes like the neonicotinoids, the debate surrounding the reauthorization of glyphosate and the media response to reports on the decline in insect populations in some parts of Germany. “Insects are of huge significance to Bayer due to their important role as pollinators of many crops. Our task is to engage the public in an open and transparent dialog about the innovative solutions that we at Bayer are developing to improve the quality of human life and thus bridge the gap between producers and consumers.”
一流的研究将提高拜耳开发选择性杀虫剂的能力
世界各地的农民越来越多地面临新的害虫侵扰和对现有杀虫剂的耐药性。此外，更严格的法规导致新杀虫剂解决方案的进入壁垒更高。具有卓越技术能力的最先进研究是作物保护创新（尤其是杀虫剂）成功开发的关键因素。
“The new greenhouse will improve our ability to develop new selective insecticides,” noted Dr. Markus Dollinger, head of Insecticide Research at Bayer. “We are confident that the innovative products based on the active ingredients that will be developed here will meet the urgent needs of our customers while at the same time supporting sustainable agriculture.” In addition to the greenhouse, an adjacent building with 1,200 m2 实验室空间和 870 m2 办公空间也将可用于杀虫剂研究。
温室将为 60 名员工提供最佳条件，用于培养和测试 30 多种不同的作物品种，在某些情况下还可以测试 40 多种外来害虫和有益生物。最高的生物安全和卫生标准将确保可以对这些生物以及转基因植物和植物新品种开展工作。温室由 133 个隔间组成，可以在其中单独复制各种气候条件，例如温度、湿度、白天的长度、温度曲线和空气过滤。这将允许在类似于自然界的现实条件下进行实验。将有可能使用目前正在开发的活性成分和生物作物保护、植物育种和有益相容组合策略等替代技术对本地和外来作物进行平行研究。