Q. Would you introduce yourself?
I was born in Hamburg and studied chemistry in Aachen from 1983 to 1989. Following a brief period of research in the USA in 1990 I gained my doctorate with magna cum laude at a research institute affiliated to the Technical College of Aachen, one of eleven German Universities of Excellence.
At the beginning of 1993 I began working in the fields of product development and applied research at Beiersdorf AG.
The Consulting and Service Bureau Dr. Riedel e.K. (BSB) has existed in its current form since the summer of 1998.
The BSB Innovation Award was been founded in 2003.
I celebrated my 25th industry anniversary in February 2018.
Q. How has BSB award been started?
For me it has always been important to do things that have a practical use (that's why I eg did my diploma and doctoral thesis at a research institute affiliated to the Technical College of Aachen, which had close contacts with industry).
As mentioned before the award started in the year 2003 with one category. When we started, the most important aim of the award was to promote the global dissemination of up-to-date knowledge; and it is still like that today.
Q. How can beauty companies win the award?
Today we have 4 categories divided into 10 sub-categories for raw materials, finished products, new concepts and environmental aspects for which you can make submissions.
So far this year we have awarded 43 prizes at the spring awards. The award ceremony in the Environment category will follow in autumn as usual.
It would go too far here to explain the exact procedure for making submissions as it is a little different for each category. This is all on our website www.bsbinnovationaward.de /2022. The conditions of participation can be found on the homepage (please scroll down). Participation is free!
Q. Who are the judges?
All jury members are independent people with extensive professional experience in the field of cosmetics. We have a basic rule: representatives of end product manufacturers can only evaluate raw materials and vice versa. This prevents conflicts of interest.
Most of them have been with us for years, but of course there are changes from year to year.
For example, BASF representatives have long been on the jury that evaluates cosmetic end products. Among the members of one of the juries that evaluate raw materials is Dr. Daniel Stangl, who works for La`Prairie, the most expensive cosmetics brand in the world, and is responsible for innovations there.
The current jury members can be found on www.bsbinnovationaward.de / 2022.
Q. Do you have any winners that was so impressive? If any, would you tell us about it?
It is a good feeling when award-winning concepts become successful, like the project of the Institute of Pharmaceutical Technology of Berlin’s Freie Universität with Professor Dr Rainer H. Müller. Around ten years ago, Professor Müller and his team developed a novel active ingredient carrier system in cooperation with a German cosmetics company. In the second step, the product that was manufactured with this new technology became very successful (at the award too with another price).
The films of the awards of the last years in the individual categories with all the winners can be seen on our YouTube channel "BSB Innovation Award".
Q. The pandemic has interrupted our normal life, and the ceremony also must have been affected. How does the host handle with this situation?
We usually give the prizes live on a ceremony night. Last and this year, we gave the prizes virtually because of the pandemic and sent from the new BSB studio.
The films of the awards in the individual categories with all the winners can be seen on our YouTube channel "BSB Innovation Award".
I am confident that we will see another live award in 2022. Next year we will have our 20th anniversary.
Q. If you expect for the future product, formulation or ingredient, what will be the important point?
The BSB Innovation Award Environment – an award that I launched in 2020 – is very important to me and will be for the industry in the future.
Many innovations in end products or ingredients today also have an impact on sustainability and the environment. The entire industry is becoming more environmentally friendly. At the end of the last century the topic of sustainability was seen as less important, today it is playing an increasingly important role: raw materials and end products along with their packaging should be recyclable.
The magic word here is for me "circular economy"
Q. Anything else do you want to say?
When the pandemic is over, we can keep working on our goals.
My credo is: "In these days, when nationalism is regaining strength and the environment holds ever greater challenges, science and research can maintain bridges and build new ones. The BSB Innovation Award is ready to participate."
