On May 28, 2026, Unilever unveiled plans to develop a new Global Innovation Centre in New Haven, Connecticut, opening by spring 2029. The centre will be a leading hub for the company’s research and development for its personal care, beauty and wellbeing businesses in the U.S. and globally.

The centre further propels Unilever’s growth strategy in the U.S. market, raising the bar for research and development in the consumer goods industry and powering the company’s portfolio of innovative and desirable brands. Centrally located in one of the world’s fastest-growing biosciences innovation clusters, the digital-first and AI-powered centre will deliver deeper insights to fuel Unilever’s ambition of reshaping product categories. 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.

The centre brings together a new and differentiated combination of assets and capabilities that will accelerate breakthroughs and enable Unilever’s brands to bring the next generation of market-making beauty, wellbeing and personal care products to people faster:

• New technologies to drive scale and speed to market: Powered by AI and emerging quantum capabilities, the centre positions Unilever to be the leading innovator in the consumer goods sector. Fuelled by the State of Connecticut and private investment, the computational power of quantum will accelerate advanced materials discovery in the coming decades, unlocking new possibilities for market-making products that drive desire by scale.
• End-to-end integration of the R&D process to push the boundaries of desirable products: All R&D capabilities — including formulation, fragrance creation, packaging design and consumer insights — will be housed under one roof. By co-locating every stage of the innovation cycle, the centre will enable deeper collaboration to further accelerate product development.
• Located in the heart of the New Haven biosciences ecosystem: With access to dozens of world-class universities, hundreds of companies and some of the brightest minds in the world, the centre places Unilever’s U.S. R&D at the heart of innovation in bioscience, building on the company’s expertise in understanding skin biology, the microbiome and the skin-brain axis. The centre will enhance Unilever scientists’ use of cutting-edge neuroscience to create the next generation of desirable products, connecting sensory attributes like texture, fragrance and bioactives with emotional, behavioural and wellness responses.

The centre advances Unilever’s strategy to become a sharper, focused personal care, beauty and wellbeing company, built upon shared capabilities across science-led innovation, demand creation and operational execution. Unilever will invest $270 million in the project over the long term, including $50 million in capital expenditure. Total combined investment of public and private funds in the centre will exceed $300 million. This investment builds on nearly $15 billion invested in Unilever’s U.S. business over the past decade, across both acquisitions and capital projects.

Approximately 300 employees will work at the centre. It will succeed Unilever’s existing R&D facility in Trumbull, Connecticut, which has operated since 1972, marking the next chapter of Unilever’s long partnership with the State of Connecticut and its scientific community.